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Getting Company Owners To Follow Their Own Rules?
techmage writes "Recently we had an issue at our small company that resulted in the loss of a lot of important data. To prevent it from happening again, we created a company-wide policy that all computers would return to IT to have their contents backed up, and the computers would be formatted and reloaded for the next user. Consistently the owners of the company break this and other policies we set up to prevent data loss, theft, etc. How do I get through to the bosses that when they break with the policies, they are potentially shooting the company in the foot?"
So you're going to take my laptop, back it up, reload it and give it to the next guy? I in turn will get someone else's formatted laptop?
Or are you just trying to say, "we lost a lot of data when someone's laptop failed without proper backup processes in place. So we've decided that everyone needs to regularly connect to the company network and back up their laptop. The owner's of the company never back up their laptop"?
See if you can assign a value to the data already lost because of their failure to follow the rules. We did a variation of this at Xerox ASD in the 70's and locked Charles Simonyi (yes, that Charles) out of "his" own source code.
Use the admin account (and shares; $C, $D, etc...) to map their hard drive remotely to a computer in the networking office. Then, use RSYNC (or SyncToy) to mirror the drive remotely. Once the initial backup is complete, daily or weekly jobs will progress quickly.
You really have to find a way to work around the guys who are in charge.
If you want to be a bit more nefarious, start the backup jobs first thing in the morning. When the boss complains his system is slow, do a backup/format/reinstall on his system. Now his system is magically fast again...
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
This whole "flip it around" idiom doesn't work well for me. I am a very unusual person. I know if I was an owner, I wouldn't be an ass, I would not only accept criticism, but would solicit it. I would make sure that if the policy doesn't work for me, then it can't work for anyone, but if it works for others, it better work for me too. In other words, if having my computer backed up is too onerous for me, I would assume it was also too onerous for my employees. On the other hand, if something is not a big imposition and has good benefits, I expect everyone, including myself, to follow it. I would basically eat my own dog food.
Since I am a great person, unlike most business owners, saying "flip it around" just doesn't work for me. I know that if an employee came up to me and criticized me, it wouldn't be a career ending move. But that's just me.
Meh, only 5% of unemployment cases get denied due to misconduct discharges. Misconduct is
Generally "misconduct" involves an act of willful disregard of the employer's interests or a deliberate violation of the employer's rules or an intentional and substantial disregard of the employee's duty to the employer.
If you subpoena the employers timekeeping records and they only show you being late 3 times in 10 years then their appeal of your benefits will get denied.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
The reasonable period is 12 months in the UK, just like the rest of the EU. It's all working time directive related. The Labour government revoked out opt out of the working time directive over a decade ago.
Also if the employer is deemed to be firing people at say 11 months to avoid this rule they will be done. I am not a lawyer but my brother is an employment tribunal judge, and you do pick up lots over the years.
Paper trail. It's the most important thing to remember. Tape recordings are fine and dandy, if you don't mind spooling through hours of tape to try to find one conversation, which may or may not be legal where you are. Sometimes it takes one person being aware that a recording is being made. Sometimes it requires both parties.
If you document every request and response, even if it's just email, then you have a record of what's been happening. Don't say anything, because it's left to the witnesses to testify to what they heard. Even if you have a tape recording saying one thing, they could simply say "But I told him something contrary in a later conversation."
Be consistent with your paper trail too. Ask for every request to be made via email, or after a conversation ask, "can you please send that to me in an email?" Besides saving you in future proceedings, it will also help you document other things that happened. "Do you remember when we made this change?" "Sure, it's in my email. December 4th 2001, you requested it, and December 5th 2001 I finished it.
Keep your paper trail off site somewhere, that you have exclusive access to, like your home computer.
It may be advantageous to have a policy for retention. If you get called into court years later regarding an incident, no matter how innocent it seemed at the time, you may simply be lacking the trail. "No, I only retain those documents for 2 years. I have no records related to your case." Be honest though. If you say you don't have it, but your equipment is subpoenaed and it's found, then you're in trouble.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
There's really nothing to keep an employer from being vindictive. Sure, go back to court and say They aren't playing nice with me." If a company really felt they had to keep you, they may just do something like open a site in the Antarctic, with just one machine and one employee, and you would be in charge of the site.
It's not like that ever happens though.
Hey, it'd be a high seniority position. Site manager is much more important that code monkey, right? :) Of course, it's a long walk home after they notify you that they've decided to terminate services there. "Promotions" aren't always what they seem.
I was reading about someone who did win the case against their employer. They were given a very nice office, a big title, and a secretary. They had absolutely no responsibilities, and no work to do. He was being paid to warm his chair from 9am to 5pm. He did that for a decade, and admitted that he was bored out of his skull. They didn't like him working there, but didn't want to end up in court again if they tried to terminate him again. Because the level of distrust was there, they couldn't assign him any work.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Seems reasonable to me. I can quit anytime I want; why can't they fire me anytime they want? I'm selling them my labor. They're free to buy labor from whomever they want, and I'm free to sell to whomever I want.
On the face of it, it seems a reasonable argument and in fact IS the argument used by the 43 states that don't offer any kind of employee protection whatsoever. However, if you activate your critical thinking skills, you'll see that reciprocity (which is what you're trying to define) doesn't exist. If, for example, I decided to just not show up to work anymore my company will go on just fine without me even though I do work in a fairly critical position. It might mean other members of my team will have to work a bit harder for a few weeks to fill the void, but there will be no overwhelming financial impact to the company whatsoever.
On the other hand, if my company decides to fire me because I wore white after Labor Day (a stupid reason, yes, but a legal one nonetheless in all but 7 states), then I am subject to severe financial disruption, not to mention the loss of medical benefits for myself and family. In all but a few states, being fired makes you ineligible for unemployment (you need to be laid off with the potential for recall to be eligible), so you're on your own regardless of there being a valid reason or not. Beyond that, whenever you interview going forward, you have to explain why you were terminated BUT you're not allowed to speak negatively of a former employer in an interview...so keep it positive! Even if you do, the myth of "they're not allowed to say anything negative about you in a reference" is a meme that should've died a long time ago. They can say whatever they want when giving a reference, legally it just has to be true. However, as you're an unemployed schlub with no income...good luck finding a lawyer who will take your case on a contingency if they lie.
We can try and spin it any way we like, the fact is the deck is stacked 100% against you. Is it likely you'll be fired for wearing white after Labor Day? Is it likely, however, that you'll be fired for another equally stupid reason? In this economy, anything's possible.
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