Timeline for How to handle a boss asking me, an IT admin, to monitor an employee's activity on his computer?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
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| Feb 29, 2016 at 17:38 | comment | added | Marsh | In the case where you're being asked to watch an employee with whom you have a close personal relationship (eg they are a friend you'd see outside of work), and there are others in your company who could perform the same task, you could tell your supervisor that you have a conflict of interest and it would be difficult/bad for you to be involved. | |
| Feb 28, 2016 at 7:22 | comment | added | Pace | I find that I have to keep secrets enough that, when I join a team, I make it a point to explain to everyone on the team that I may have to lie to their face and they should not always assume everything I say is true. Similarly, they should not tell me things they wouldn't want their employer's knowing. | |
| Feb 28, 2016 at 5:38 | vote | accept | Smig | ||
| Feb 26, 2016 at 23:49 | comment | added | Mołot | One little thing to add: All capabilities OP got, all permissions and admin rights, he got because employer expected to be needed. to be used. It's always good time to ask do we have official policy about this?, but if you don't want to do some things, the only time to refuse is when you are about to get capabilities to do them. Even if refusal means not getting hired. And I say this as someone with admin access to a bit more systems than I'd prefer. | |
| Feb 26, 2016 at 16:37 | comment | added | Ejaz |
@HLGEM And spying on someone behind his back is just ridiculous sounded like you agree that it is unlawful and unethical spying but of course that's not what you mean. I agree with you that such a thought is totally ridiculous and going a bit overboard with the rights issue.
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| Feb 26, 2016 at 14:38 | comment | added | HLGEM | @Aroth, it is not the IT person;s job to talk to the person and try to prevent them from getting fired. It is irresponsible of him to do so. It is the person's manager to determine these things. He may have been talked to about this multiple times for all you know. | |
| Feb 26, 2016 at 14:36 | comment | added | HLGEM | @Falco - all layoff decisions are made by a secret team. Some things can't be discussed openly. And spying on someone behind his back is just ridiculous. He is at work using company equipment, it is not spying to verify he is doing what he is being paid to do. Everyone should always assume that the company is monitoring their equipment use (except in countries with legal restrictions on this), there is nothing underhanded about that at all. It is the job of IT admin to do that kind of monitoring. | |
| Feb 26, 2016 at 12:07 | comment | added | aroth | I think the value of secrecy is being overstated, at least as applied to this particular instance. If the employer is just playing 'gotcha' with the employee to get a pretext for termination, fair enough. However, if the employer wants to actually solve the problem of the employee gaming at work without terminating them, an open discussion such as the OP proposed, along the lines of "our policy doesn't permit personal use of company hardware, it's grounds for termination, and we can and do monitor everyone's usage", would probably be more effective than the cloak-and-dagger silliness. | |
| Feb 26, 2016 at 10:17 | comment | added | Falco | I think there is a big difference between keeping a secret and spying on someone behind their back If a coworker did know I would be laid off and didn't tell me because of policy, that's ok. But if he was on the secret team which voted for my lay-off that is an entirely different matter. Knwoing and Doing are very different things. | |
| S Feb 26, 2016 at 0:06 | history | suggested | John Kugelman | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
use blockquotes for quotes instead of code markup
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| Feb 25, 2016 at 22:56 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Feb 26, 2016 at 0:06 | |||||
| Feb 25, 2016 at 20:30 | history | edited | HLGEM | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 602 characters in body
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| Feb 25, 2016 at 19:17 | comment | added | thursdaysgeek | For a layoff example: when my husband and I worked at the same company, but he was in management, he was not able to tell me that layoffs were coming. I could tell something was wrong, but until employees were told, I didn't know. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 19:05 | comment | added | Old_Lamplighter | I agree, with one caveat. If the company has a set procedure on how to track an employee for disciplinary action up to and including termination, it is your job to follow that policy, and not your manager's orders. I worked for one company that had very strict protocols for dealing with potential security issues, which this falls under. ANY sort of employee surveillance required both HR and security to be involved. He should check with both to see what the proper course of action is. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 18:48 | comment | added | Just Do It | 100% Agree with this, as an IT admin and DBA(our department is small, we perform several roles) I have to weekly report any suspicious activity to my superior(pages visited, odd sales reports and such) and I much rather have my superior's trust than break it cause I like someone, being able to differentiate work from friendship is crucial for most if not all positions. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 18:24 | history | answered | HLGEM | CC BY-SA 3.0 |