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Most IT Pros Have Seen Embarrassing Information About Their Colleagues
An anonymous reader writes: Often working in isolation, IT teams are still considered to be supporting players in many workplaces, yet the responsibility being placed on them is huge. In the event of a cyber attack, network outage or other major issue, they will typically drop everything to fix the problem at hand. Almost all the respondents (95%) to a new AlienVault survey said that they have fixed a user or executive's personal computer issue during their work hours. In addition, over three-quarters (77%) said that they had seen and kept secret potentially embarrassing information relating to their colleagues' or executives' use of company-owned IT resources.
As such, if I come across anything illegal, I report it. If it's unsuitable for a work environment or a risk, I have a quiet word, Anything else, I ignore it, none of my business.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Yeah, I've never grasped the stupidity of some people. There's no excuse for this, especially in IT. I mean, do you NOT have an internet connected PC or other device at home? Maybe back in the 90s some didn't, but for the past 15 years there's absolutely no excuse. And if you really feel the need to surreptitiously rub one out at work, there's always your personal phone.
Sure, I occasionally use my corporate laptop to send the odd personal e-mail but that's allowed in our IT policy, and every time I do it I quietly ask myself would it be devastating to my career or personal life if the contents of that e-mail were made public. If the answer is yes, I don't send it. This isn't rocket surgery.
A truly professional "IT Pro" will learn to forget the things he has seen about his/her colleagues.
We've all had to do things like: check mail spools, check user directories, enable debug-level logging on various systems, etc. and seen embarrassing or personal things. The question is: are you a professional who learns to forget it and stick to the relevant data or are you a shithead who spreads rumours and makes us all look like privacy-invading assholes?
Trolling is a art,
I used to get confused with this behavior. Seen it plenty myself. Why risk your career just to rub one off at work?
I've realized though that these guys are not stupid. They're just frustrated.
They have zero privacy at home between kids and a wife that won't leave them alone but won't have sex with them more than once every few months. They also tend to have social standards (conservative, religious) that looks down on masturbation and healthy recreational sex.
I also used to wonder why every successful long marriage I've seen has both partners spending significant times apart.