When Ethics and IT Collide 414
jcatcw writes "IT workers have access to confidential data, and they can see what other employees are doing on their computers or the networks. This can put a good worker in a bad predicament. Bryan, the IT director for the U.S. division of German company, discovered an employee using a company computer to view pornography of Asian women and of children. He reported it but the company ignored it. Subsequently the employee was promoted and moved to China to run a manufacturing plant. That was six years ago but Bryan still regrets not going to the FBI. Other IT workers admit using their admin passwords to snoop through company systems. In a Ponemon Institute poll of more than 16,000 U.S. IT practitioners, 62% said they had accessed another person's computer without permission, 50% read confidential or sensitive information without a legitimate reason, and 42% said they had knowingly violated their company's privacy, security or IT policies. But in the absence of a professional code of ethics, companies struggle to keep corporate policies up to date."
Why bother keeping corporate policies up to date? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:4, Interesting)
If it was like the PMP, CMA, CPA or other professional certifications/licensure that industry requires for certain jobs, then code of ethics violations would mean loss of certifications/licensure. That would weed out all those unethical assholes in IT.
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps you know different IT folks than I do. Most of the IT guys I know would do very poorly in both of these roles.
I think the point of a "Professional Association" is that it would raise the risk of unethical behavior. Right now you get caught with your fingers in the cookie jar & lose your job, you'll have a new one in a few months, and the old job will likely only "confirm employment" because of HR policy. If there was a professional society companies could refer to, they might able to inflict a more serious punishment. Of course, given the lack of success with similar professional organizations in Law & Medicine in policing their memberships, my confidence level is low.
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:4, Funny)
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I'm sorry, but that is exactly what I am saying. I am replacing a guy who lost his position because he was an unethical boob without an education. Each one of the managers in my division that have lost their job or have been forced into retirement in the last 10 years just happen to have an associates only or no degree. By the end of the year, we will have only one manager without a bachelors and they are sweating bullets right now. It has become so endemic within my organization, a hospital, that we starti
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If they were able to negotiate that salary from the corporate management, then they aren't excessively paid. Companies pay people according to their perceived worth. If you are willing to do the same job at the same quality level for less money, then not only are you being foolish in the personal financial realm, but you are devaluing the IT skill set for everyone else as well. Part of what a professional licensing organization would d
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with you that it is how it should work. I hope you don't think that's how upper management pay scale works in the real world. Given that the people in charge of the large organizations don't play by those rules, it makes little sense for the people that work for the large organizations to play by those rules.
From my own personal experience: I'm a stagehand, I used to work Off-Broadway on for-profit commercial shows (multi-million dollars budgets). Most of the stagehands that work in those venues have college degrees in stagecraft. The pay scale works out to a lower lower middle class lifestyle in NYC. $20 an hour doesn't go far in NYC. Forget raising a family on that here. Forget health insurance. There was a high attrition rate, but there was always a new batch of college grads that would fill the ranks. Then I moved on to Broadway. Broadway stagehands are union. The job is really the same, but we make twice as much money as Off-Broadway. The attrition rate is pretty low. People have insurance and can afford to have kids. The tickets cost twice as much for the consumer. Yet strangely, Broadway is thriving, while the Commercial Off-Broadway scene is slowly vanishing, so your theoretical "blight on consumers" doesn't seem to be happening. Granted there are unions out there who don't honestly factor in profits (or lack there of) when they are making demands in a contract negotiation. Not only do those unions give other unions a bad name, but they destroy their own industry. However, there is plenty of room between "destroying the industry" and "the minimum that someone will accept for the job" It's that difference that keeps the attrition rate low and allows for stagehands with decades of high level experience, those experienced stagehands are well worth the price of two or three fresh from college employees. In the non-union Off-Broadway scene those experienced workers never emerge because of attrition, but there is always someone willing to do the job. Now be it a union or a professional licensing organization, keeping the labor cost/value above the bare minimum, but within what the industry will bear, results a healthier more sustainable work culture. As for end-consumer costs, those are always as high as the market will bear, the only difference is the internal distribution of the cash flow. By doing any job for less than the guy who was doing the job yesterday, are you really going to save the consumer money or are you just increasing the year-end bonus for someone already in the highest tax bracket? You seem to have some sort of pride in your willingness to do-more-for-less, as though that will somehow make life better for the common man or will earn you the love and respect of the company you work for. From my perspective: you are the common man, make life better for yourself by attaching a (carefully considered) high price to your labor. A paycheck that supports a high standard of living is how companies show respect.
Are you willing to pay the increasing salaries? (Score:5, Informative)
No? Not willing to pay up? Oh well then, you can't really complain.
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:5, Funny)
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but I can read your email...
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It's about culture. Most IT guys are "techies" not money-grubbing bastards (aka business executives, accountants, etc.) Most IT professionals have a sense of integrity, understand their power within the organization, and act reasonably respon
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Most of the good IT professionals I know don't have certifications, they let their work and references speak for themselves.
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Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:2)
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:4, Insightful)
Because it:
That's why. Whenever you don't understand a corporate decision, just ask yourself, "Who benefits from this?", and soon the reason will become obvious. It's not that corporations make non-sensical decisions; rather, that corporate decisions are often motivated more by internal politics and the need to maintain a semblance of professionalism than anything else.
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:5, Insightful)
"Bryan, the IT director for the U.S. division of German company, discovered an employee using a company computer to view pornography of Asian women and of children."
And how did he know this, if he wasn't LOOKING at the damned stuff himself?
1. Someone looking at adult porn is not an "ethical problem", unless you got your ethics from the bible belt.
2. Someone looking at kiddie porn isn't an "ethical problem" either - its a legal problem! Like in "against the law".
3. Not reporting it because you would have to admit you were snooping on other people - priceless AND retarded.
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously -- why even bring up the Asian aspect at all, as though that's somehow relevant? I can understand being worried about children, but worried about Asian women? Give me a break.
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1. Someone looking at adult porn is not an "ethical problem", unless you got your ethics from the bible belt.
Someone looking at adult porn on company computers is an "ethical problem."
2. Someone looking at kiddie porn isn't an "ethical problem" either - its a legal problem! Like in "against the law".
Yes, indeed.
3. Not reporting it because you would have to admit you were snooping on other people - priceless AND retarded.
He did report it. It says so in the summary that you quoted.
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Re #1: Its only an ethical problem if you think its an ethical problem. Most of it is pretty harmless/lame/stupid, so why not let people spend a few minutes once in a while looking at something they find easy on the eyes. Better than looking at this [trolltalk.com].
Re #3: He didn't report the kiddie porn to the police ... they're the ones who you report kiddie porn to, not your boss.
I can understand his frustration to a certain extent. Ever try to report child abuse? You'd better have a squeeky-clean past, because yo
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Sure it's an ethical problem! That's why it's against the law.
Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat (Score:5, Funny)
Well reporting it to upper management is possibly one of the worst things you can do. In the example he said he knew about the kiddy porn and report it to upper managment. Well, that was your first mistake. First thing you did was single yourself out as a trouble maker and a snitch. People don't like snitches, even if it is for a good reason.
Well he reported the shit and nothing happened. Well possibly nobody believed him so he outed himself for no good reason. Then most upper management blokes tend to run in packs. So odds are he outed his mark to a friend of his mark. The person he outed and the person he outed to could have booth been trading kiddy porn or the person he outed just simply said he wasn't to his frined. Who would you believe? So the only thing he did was paint a fat ass target on his ass.
I would have anonymously figure out a way to rig his computer to send all his kiddy porn to a "public" printer. The biggest fucking color printer in the place. Maybe one of those big ass HP with paper rolls on it. For extra kick I would have set it to go off when the office prude or church lady was standing next to it. Then I would fire the bitch off and stand back and watch the fun.
Mr Kiddy porn gets what's coming to him. I'm not on anyone elses shit list and I have a good laugh at someone elses expense. Of course the whole fuckign thing can backfire. I might not be as good as I think I am and the whole barking mess could fall right back in to my lap with a fat ass thund follwed by a clang.
but I'm that good.. so no worries...
There *is* a code of ethics (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics [acm.org]
Re:There *is* a code of ethics (Score:5, Insightful)
Choose one of these two, and break the code both ways:
1.7 Respect the privacy of others.
1.8 Honor confidentiality.
2.6 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.
2.8 Access computing and communication resources only when authorized to do so.
3.1 Articulate social responsibilities of members of an organizational unit and encourage full acceptance of those responsibilities.
3.5 Articulate and support policies that protect the dignity of users and others affected by a computing system.
1.2 Avoid harm to others.
2.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work.
2.3 Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work.
3.2 Manage personnel and resources to design and build information systems that enhance the quality of working life.
3.3 Acknowledge and support proper and authorized uses of an organization's computing and communication resources.
Re:There *is* a code of ethics (Score:5, Insightful)
It has been posited by my legal department that IT workers are "mandatory reporters" in cases of cyber crime, child abuse, and terrorism.
This opinion, which I have not seen tested in court, seems exceptionally relevant considering that like teachers (who are often the first to see child abuse), nurses/doctors (the first to treat physical abuse), and police (the first to intervene in domestic abuse) IT people are a first detector for a myriad of crimes.
Thus, based on legal advice, my employees are instructed to notify law enforcement *before* notifying management. (In some states this may actually be law now)
So yes, this code of ethics, as well as the LOPSA Code I linked below- do apply. Assuming of course the IT director isn't one of those management monkeys who likes to bury things "for the good of the company".
Actually, the most sensible thing is (Score:4, Insightful)
And who wants to fuss with that. My advice would be to (a) never look at anything that would cause you to be forced to report anything (b) if you do, make sure no one else knows and pretend it never happened (c) if caught in a dilemma, tell your boss anyway and say you weren't sure if this applied and you need his/her guidance.
That's the only sensible thing to do, but I realize you can't give that as official advice.
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The difference for "mandatory reporters" is that they are legally required to report even suspicions of abuse, not just cases where they have evidence or knowledge. Abuse is usually very hard to recognize with any certainty.
Summary has 2 different ethical problems (Score:3, Insightful)
2) Actively doing things that the employee knows are illegal/immoral/unethical. Come on - does a "profession" really need a code of ethics to tell its members not to seek information to which they are not entitled? Maybe they need to reevaluate calling themselves "professionals".
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Theoretically, ethics start with your parents. You get your original ethics template from them by watching what they do. You can try to overlay a code of ethics over that, and if the individual is flexible enough it might help reinforce the need for security or override a natural tendency to want to violate the rules, but more often than not a code of ethics is just so many words. It's up to the individual to determine right from wrong in their own mind, based on personal and societal cues. If someone is go
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At my university, they recently sent out an email to a couple thousand students that included an attachment containing personal information about every student in the engineering department, including GPA, phone numbers, and addresses. Instead of calling up the IT guys and deleting the emails from the acc
Re:Summary has 2 different ethical problems (Score:5, Insightful)
I bet you they have codes of ethics too concerning not stealing things in their clients homes and such.
A jerk is a jerk no matter what industry they're in.
So where is the "ethical dilemma"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Where's the ethical dilemma?
If HR does nothing about it, you report it to the FBI.
Where's the ethical dilemma?
And ethical dilemma would be where there were two ethically valid choices with different consequences. If you have two kids and they're both drowning, which one do you save first?
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We're assuming, of course, that the information was gained through means not allowed by company policy, and that you were just snooping. This is why police have to get warrants to bust into peoples houses and all that.
What privacy? There is no privacy at work. (Score:5, Insightful)
There was no privacy here, therefore no ethical issue.
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Privacy is a rather "slippery" thing. The U.S. Constitution never specifically guarantees anyone a "right" to privacy. Neither to any of the Constitutional amendments. It's more of an "implied" individual right, subject to interpretation. (Just being defined as a "figure in the public eye" can drastically change your ability to sue someone for publishing photos taken of you without your permission, for example.)
Ultimately, I think people only retain the amount o
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You don't lose your rights when you enter a workplace.
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Was the employee German or it was all happening in the USA? If the employee was German, was the policy compliant to German privacy legislation and were the employees correctly informed about it and warned about its enforcement as required by German (and EU) legislation?
Based on personal experience with Americans rolling out nannyware around Y2K I somehow suspect that none of that was done and if the employee was not in the USA and not American the l
There is no Absence! (Score:5, Informative)
The code of ethics is found here:
http://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics [lopsa.org]
While my IT department does not require membership in this organization, these rules of ethics are *posted* and violations of those rules are a fireable offense!
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Unless you were raised by wolves, you already know the difference between right and wrong. Looking through someone's email is just as wrong as looking through their postal mail or peeping through their windows. You don't need to take any ethics classes to know that it's wrong.
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But adopting a code like this as departmental "law" does two important things:
1. It puts employees we serve at ease because they have a measuring stick for our conduct. (A copy of the LOPSA code is included in the new employee materials)
2. It gives the IT director leverage to cleanly and efficiently fire workers when ethical mis-steps occur.
You're right: "I" don't need the "code"- but it has good uses.
Re:There is no Absence! (Score:4, Interesting)
Most of us do. But then again a LOT of us have lapses and moments of weakness. I mean if you know there is some really good dirt being shot back and forth via email and you log all email it's really tempting to just snoop through it to kill some boredom. Sometimes just reading a piece of paper on the wall can help you keep your focus.
I'm an I.T. Manager and it's sort of tough sometimes. For me personally I'm having a bad time in my life and I have this vicious streak that emerges many times a day - and that isn't helping. I have the ability to see every website they visit, everything they do on their PC, and can see every email received and sent. I can also access pretty much every file on every machine in the company. That's a LOT of responsibility. And I honestly don't snoop through any of it - it's kept for security/legal reasons. Monthly I wrap it up an 256bit AES encryption on a DVD and that's it. I think most I.T. people are actually pretty honest as well as far as the ones I've met. I mean I'd hate to see what the assholes in sales would do if they had as much power over the company as I had. heh, I actually just cringed.
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I think my biggest beef in this business, morality wise, is those that pretend. The whole cocky, know it all, Nick Burns malarkey. I vowed about 6 years ago, that If I didn't know something, I'd admit to it. If I'm not sure what the consequence will be regarding a technical decision, I lay that out for management. It's impossible to know everything.
BS in the IT field is easily perpetrated. Most of what I know is specialty knowledge. It would be easy to make believable stuf
When my pay is ethical, I'll worry about the rest (Score:5, Insightful)
Using company systems for your own needs? heck, the company is alreaady getting 40 grand worth of free overtime. Is that ethical?
Never mind legal, is is ETHICAL?
Re:When my pay is ethical, I'll worry about the re (Score:5, Insightful)
If you have an ethics issue with your current job, you should quit, and find a new job. The last thing you should ever want is to be thought of as a person who will compromise his principles for money.
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Surely you jest!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:When my pay is ethical, I'll worry about the re (Score:2)
There are either hourly workers or salaried workers, if you're salaried, did not you agree to being paid a fixed amount?
Not sure how your point relates to ethics. It seems as you are doing the compromise in accepting such a situation.
If your argument is that "salaried" situations are unfair, I can agree but I don't know if that is really an issue of ethics eith
Re:When my pay is ethical, I'll worry about the re (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, the other side to that discussion is understanding the that typical salaried employee is not *working* eight hours in the day. Even removing 10 minute breaks and lunch the average time spent actually
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ethics is cultural (Score:2)
Re:When my pay is ethical, I'll worry about the re (Score:2)
Absence of a Professional Code of Ethics (Score:2)
And Doctors, the same who diagnose bogus psychological diseases in children just so they get kickbacks from the drug companies.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. At least most of the IT people aren't DOING anything with the data they collect. Just being nosy.
75% of all stats are made up on the spot... (Score:4, Insightful)
I know of people instantly fired for doing such things. There is an unwritten IT code and the vast majority of IT people I have known or ever come in contact with follow it.
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Had you RTFA, you'd know that the whole problem is that the code is unwritten, and therefore everyone has a different interpretation of what is and what isn't acceptable.
Nobody in IT (at least, nobody with half a brain) will openly admit to abusing their privileges. But ask them anonymously and you may well see a different picture.
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Many years ago I worked as a temp in a helpdesk situation. The position included tons of down-time, and one day I filled in the gaps by browsing what available resources I had been granted access to. I assumed that as a temp, I would have almost no access at all as any such access was not required in order to open a ticket.
Much to the contrary, I was able to access the entire salary list for the organization, and detailed networking topography and connections for all the remote offices. I reported thi
I faced a quandry (Score:2, Interesting)
Probably a million stories similar to mine...
Never (almost) (Score:2)
Worrisome (Score:2)
I find it worrisome that such a large percentage of out IT workforce is so cavalier about ethics and privacy. I'll ignore the intentional violations of
security policy because much of they MIGHT be attributed to one-off circumventions in order to get a necessary job done. It is curious that so many would
find snooping such a permissible activity. A professiona
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So technically I violated privacy, but if you complained about an email problem, it would be reasonable to expect that the sysadmin will end up seeing your email message.
Permission? (Score:3, Insightful)
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IT staff are employees too... They don't own the machines either. Not to mention that if you work for a company that handles personal information, you may be breaking the law if you go acessing systems/data without permission and the proper controls.
Your posting is a stark illustration of why the field needs a code of ethics.
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Not what the OP was saying - the TFS mentions "access[ing] another person's computer without permission", unless they are talking about hacking into random people's personal machines (which seems unlikely), they seem to be implying that the IT person would need a user's "permission" to access "their" PC, which is just not true. It's
(Oxy)moronic (Score:2)
Code of Ethics (Score:2)
It's a sad state of affairs, that like gossip, confidential information is always the most interesting. No ethics code is going to stop unscrupulous (AKA dishonest) people from snooping in other people's private affairs.
Conflation of different areas (Score:4, Insightful)
- morally wrong (going against your own personal conscience)
- legally wrong (going against codified law)or
- sinful (going against your religious beliefs)
Watching child pornography is illegal in all relevant legal systems, and not reporting someone to the authorities could be considered a crime of omission or obstruction of justice. It might be sinful, depending on your religion. It is probably considered morally wrong by the majority of people.The problem I see with the dilemma posed by the article is that he tries to conflate these areas and to get a mental map that divides things neatly into The Right Thing(TM) and The Wrong Thing(TM). I think this approach vastly over-simplifies things; take file-sharing, for instance: many instances are illegal since they break copyright law. Yet I wouldn't think it is immoral, since the laws appear to be unjustly slanted against consumers. I couldn't say how religions see the issue (the closest I could find was a quote from the Bible: "go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor" which seems to speak out against hoarding property), so I won't make a qualified judgement on that.
But it should be clear that this is a complex issue, and people trying to frame it in terms of "right" and "wrong" without specifying the framework they're using makes a good answer almost impossible.
Re:Conflation of different areas (Score:4, Insightful)
* ethically wrong (violating a codified system to which you have agreed, but which is not backed by threat of physical force)
People get that one confused with the other 3 as well.
Ethical can be thought of as polar from legal: You don't agree to abide by the legal system, but you're threatened by physical force if you don't comply.
What can you say.... (Score:2)
What's the next topic for
Not me. (Score:5, Insightful)
I just don't care. Yeah, it might be nice to intercept early the memo that says I'm going to get canned tomorrow (or whatever) but I have more than enough things on my plate and no time, motivation, or incentive to play Secret Squirrel with other people's stuff. I have news for you: 99.9999% of what happens on a business network is mind numbingly boring. Memos. Transmittals. Materials lists. Spreadsheets. Schedules. Business correspondence so packed with legalese and ass-kissing and meaningless paradigm shifting buzzword bullshit it makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.
If I want to abuse my authority and misappropriate company time and network access, it's easier and less mind-frazzling to just delegate the job to somebody else and go read Slashdot.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Trouble keeping plicies up to date? (Score:2)
How hard is that? Every large company I've seen policies for has blanket statements saying something like "don't access stuff you're not authorized to access".
What is not being kept up to date? How much more complicated does it need to get?
They should both be fired (Score:2)
Some companies don't feel the need to actually lay out a code of ethics, but I can't think of a single boss that doesn't understand the importance of "improper use of company equipment". This isn't a technology issue. This is exactly what it sounds like, an ethics and conduct issue. If the mail room clerks wer
What's wrong with asian women? (Score:4, Insightful)
I know what the author was trying to get across, and there was plenty of cause to call the FBI, but lumping the asian women with children is just demeaning to the women.
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In the eyes of the law, women are often equated to be as helpless (and as unable to make reasonable decisions) as children.
Just throwin that out there.
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It's not just IT (Score:3, Interesting)
Most newbie Admins poke around in places they shouldn't soon after getting heightened access to the systems.
Almost anyone, in any career where they have access to sensitive information end up abusing it to some degree.
Doctors, Nurses and medical records people read the files of friends or relatives all the time, and that's certainly illegal.
Also, if you come across that kind of stuff in your routine work, you are actually required by law to report it to the police.
After 15+ years in IT, all data looks the same to me.
I can help someone adjust the font on a document and not even notice what it says.
At the end of the day, it's your reflection. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:At the end of the day, it's your reflection. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why it is so scary to let certain people, delusional paranoids such as yourself, to have this power. It boggles the mind what someone would have done to convince you that they were a kiddy fiddler, wearing black clothes, taling quietly, maybe they just weren't that social - i am pretty sure that they didn't have disturbing pictures around the cubical. I guess he is just glad that you weren't so convinced that you dropped a few extra files onto his machine - all in order to protect your children from the non-existant menace. Congratulations, I am sure your witch hunting will be put to better use next time.
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I guess he is just glad that you weren't so convinced that you dropped a few extra files onto his machine - all in order to protect your children from the non-existant menace. Congratulations, I am sure your witch hunting will be put to better use next time.
I tend to be of the same opinion, but I also recognize that there's such a thing as probable cause. Sometimes people act creepy just because they're eccentric. Other people act creepy because they really are doing creepy things.
There's a huge difference between looking more closely at someone who's drawn attention to themselves and framing that person. Most rational adults are quite capable of doing the former without stooping to the latter. The alternative is deliberately looking the other way rega
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Sort of depends on what this means... (Score:3, Interesting)
- Asian women, men in porn
- Asian children in porn
Or, does it mean;
- generic Asian porn
- generic pictures of kids in NON porn situations like one might run across if one were looking into culture of the far east.
You can like Asian women and seek out that sort of porn without liking Asian children in porn.
There is a HUGE difference between porn at work (a common thing) and KIDDIE porn at work. One is just something you can get fired for. The other is a felony.
The phrasing in the summary seems to imply the latter is what is going on, in which case you need to check your morals at the door and adopt whatever the company says is OK. (And that seems to be that a bit o-boobies searching is fine since the HR department didn't do anything about it.)
Just because YOU don't like porn of adults, doesn't mean you need to be bugging the FBI about it. If it was real child porn YOU ALREADY COMMITTED A CRIME and acted immorally by not going to the cops with the information.
It's how I got my job... (Score:2)
Of course, that being said, he's gone, and I got pulled in. So I'm happy.
Your choices when presented with criminal actions (Score:2)
2. quit
Blowing the whistle makes you a big target. Ignoring the problem makes you guilty.
be nice to your IT guy and buy him lots of beer (Score:2)
Ambiguity over ethics (Score:3, Interesting)
This all involves the same company. As an employee, what can I conclude about my company's ethical standards? What should I do if I discover something 'unethical'?
Re:Why talk about Ethics (Score:4, Insightful)
5% of us would vote randomly
6% will definitely be stuffing the ballot box
7% Might be stuffing the ballot box
Or worse yet:
17% will choose the Cowboy Neal option
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Sociopaths. (Score:2)
However, sociopaths do not like competition and the non-sociopaths below them will make quick work of dispensing with any pretenders to the throne. They may not agree with your strategies, but they've read your playbook.
So for the non-megalomaniac, it is probably advisable for success to not be a raging sociopath.
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What you are confusing is the Adam Smith style capitalism with the Monopolist practices of modern upper managment.
Capitalism isn't war, it's more like a race. Even though you are trying to win, there must be other competetors for there to be a race. Imagine Lance Armstrong tried to have a bike race where he was the only entrant. What would be the point?
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That's not to say I disagree with you that a reasonable amount of personal activity on company time should be tolerated, just that your excuse sucks.
Re:Not entirely ethics (Score:5, Funny)
Come off it ... 70% of ALL porn-viewing is during working hours.
Your boss does it. Your coworkers do it. Get over it.
As long as you get your work done, who gives a shit? Better they look at pr0n than some site that advocates that "Jebus is comiong soon" and they start putting bible tracts on your keyboard ... THAT is a real invasion of a person's "space".
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
If the people you hire dont get any work done you already know this without having to snoop through their browsing habits. If they don't work you fire their lazy ass; you don't snoop on their e-mails. it's none of your fucking business what websites they visit or who, what, why and when they e-mailed someone.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Because those who look at them create a demand to produce them.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
As a shortcut, ask yourself, what would the BOFH do?
He'd go for extortion?