Posted on 04/17/2006 by first timer
Viewed: 544 times
I work on a security team for a large company on the east coast. We handle all aspects of software security from userids and passwords to locking down applicatiions and servers. My company goes a little overboard when it comes to security. We monitor everything right down to the employee phones!
We use to joke that for as much watching as we do, there is no one to watch us, the security team. Well apparently our joke was overheard because just last week an outside consulting firm was hired by "upper management" to install some watchdog system on all the servers. We were not asked to help in any way. I get the feeling we are now going to be "watched".
Now I don't mind being watched myself, it is only fair, but who is going to watch this 3rd party firm watching us? What if they are scamming us? And who is watching "management"? I think we need to hire a few more layers of watchers, and then have the employees watch them.
What a waste of company resources and money. Just imagine if you hired a team you actually trusted how much real work could get done.
POST A COMMENTDharmadee(04/17/2006)
Exactly right! My feeling is, the management does not have a very strong sense of self-esteem. Obviously they don't trust theit own judgement. Certainly, there can be some over- seeing when managing employees. But spying constantly on employees undermines the sense of team spirit that a company SHOULD be trying to achieve. Has anyone read "1984" by George Orwell? He was only off by a mere 20 years. Check it out.
the cynic(04/18/2006)
This brings to mind some Dr. Seuss book from my childhood: "And the Hawtch-Hawtcher Bee Watcher watched the bee. He didn't watch hard enough, so the Hawtch Hawtcher Bee Watcher Watcher watched him. HE didn't watch hard enough, so the Hawtch Hawtcher Bee Watcher Watcher Watcher watched HIM watch the bee!" hee hee
the cynic(04/18/2006)
BTW I agree with you about the 1984 atmosphere. It's one thing to make sure employees aren't watching porn at work, but it goes too far IMHO. Half of websites at my work are blocked for the most ridiculous reasons ("political content, religious content, nonprofit/service organizing, etc."--not kidding, those are categories!) At my husband's old company, he checked his hotmail and found it blocked, unknowingly. Five minutes later he got a call from IT, "Please don't conduct personal business at work!" AAAAH! If that's not spooky....Also, one time I was on the phone with him upset about a graduate school paper, and he said after we got off that call, his boss said, "What were you doing on a personal call, and what's her problem?" She was LISTENING THE WHOLE TIME!! Chaysus.
cnubelevit(04/20/2006)
It's not that they don't trust you, but they don't.
tawanda(04/25/2006)
Since September 11th, the workplace has become an increasingly suspicious, hostile place. It used to be illegal to continue listening to a call once the spy realized it was personal. It used to be illegal to monitor calls period without notifying the employee explicitly that it would be happening in the first place. Laws pertaining to an employee's rights (or the lack thereof) in the workplace are changing so fast now it can be difficult to keep up. I think more than anything else, it shows a mentality of assumed guilt. You are no longer an individual - you are now a number and without justification they assume the worst...
tawanda(04/25/2006)
I can tell every time IT remotes into my machine without my requesring their assistance. I know they are just following the orders of those above me, but it causes my computer to hang up and only serves to add more stress to an already extremely strained situation.
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