Sure, we're all human - but I noticed through my career that those who abused their privilegs didn't tend to last long, and those who had a strong ethic as to w

Sure, we're all human - but I noticed through my career that those who abused their privilegs didn't tend to last long, and those who had a strong ethic as to what was appropriate and not appropriate (ie: myself) tended to be trusted with quite a bit - often quite outside the scope of my job title itself. yes, there are systems that should enforce this properly - you can't build an empire on raw trust - but for the small-time systems administrator out their working throug your career - this principle should always stick with you. Respect users data. Don't ever BRAG about the access you have. People, both suits and workers, don't like to be reminded that actually you can see record and mess with their mail - everyone is happier if you don't tell them, and don't do it (and, yes, at some point set up controls to make this harder to do) I've turned away enough managers and directors, even when I agreed with them in one case on a deep personal level, and would have faced no consequnces for looking it up - I still did the right thing and insisted that if they wanted to snoop through employee's email, that I'd only do it through the OK of HR or specific others. I was firm and polite, and pointed out that I'd do the same if someone other than (let's say the owner) walked in and asked for his email. He walked away pissed. He came by an hour or so later and said, "you know, I really admire your ethics on this - that was the right thing to do, and not many people would stick to it like that - so no worries about hard feelings or anthing like that."