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I get to see the crazy stuff people do on work laptops all the time. After letting one guy go for poor performance, a quick scan of his machine showed he was s

I get to see the crazy stuff people do on work laptops all the time. After letting one guy go for poor performance, a quick scan of his machine showed he was spending a majority of his time reading and commenting on incel message boards. Nevermind the porn. Never ever put anything personal on a work laptop. I recommend remote desktoping to your personal machine and doing all your personal stuff on that machine, so you get the best of both worlds.

renewiltord 5y ago
Man, y’all are weird, reading browser history and shit. I would just remote wipe the computer and leave it be. That’s what my last employer did. They just Fleetsmithed it to zero and left me with the MacBook Pro. I don’t see why anyone would do anything else.
- marcinzm 5y ago
  If they were let go for cause then the laptop history is useful probably in case of lawsuit or unemployment claims.
  - renewiltord 5y ago
    Is it, though? I genuinely don’t think so. Performance stuff like this is usually documented via your HR stuff, the PIP etc. “This guy was browsing incel forums from this time to this time” Which court in what land uses that information? Sounds kind of mythical, especially since I’m sure there’s an army of other people on idiot forums like that who are nonetheless performing fine. EDIT: Okay, you guys hit me with sufficient downvotes that I’m rate limited so I know the predominant view is different. Fine. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll tell you this. If some rando IT dude is going through folks’ computers after they quit and I find out, I am quitting your company and telling everyone. I have never done that to anyone reporting to me and no company has ever done that to me. I can’t believe you’d accept these work conditions. Wild.
    - marcinzm 5y ago
      >Fine. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll tell you this. If some rando IT dude is going through folks’ computers after they quit and I find out, I am quitting your company and telling everyone. I have never done that to anyone reporting to me and no company has ever done that to me. I can’t believe you’d accept these work conditions. Wild. Every large company I've worked at or heard of it's pretty much assumed that IT may monitor everything you do on their machine. Everyone knew this. Which is why you don't use the company laptop for personal use.
      - mewpmewp2 5y ago
        Is it same in EU? If I read the law correctly I understood they need a good reason to monitor and they definitely need to notify you and ask for consent. I have been using my work laptop quite heavily for personal use and I would prefer not to stop honestly. I believe my intentions are pure and to provide value, I understand world is not perfect, but I would not want to work for an employer that needed to monitor me.
        Sebb767 5y ago
        IANAL, but as far as I read into the situation, employee monitoring is a very dangerous field. There are exceptions, however, such as company-provided http(s) proxies and more concrete monitoring or investigation when suspicion arises (I know of two cases where employees were suspected of consuming child porn and they were both monitored as well as having their hardware seized). Lastly, the companies or specific malicious admins might simply not care about the legality and still monitor you - either for company reasons or simply to stir through your data. If they have admin access to your computer, it's simply not your computer.
      - snowwrestler 5y ago
        IT may have the legal right and often the technical ability to monitor any activity on work computers. But it is stupid to allow any old IT staff to do so, and this thread is a good illustration of why: because most IT staff do not have the discipline or smarts to keep what they learn sufficiently confidential. Allowing IT staff to browse the files of other staff at will can lead to other HR problems such as harassment or even blackmail, or loss of corporate reputation if people post embarrassing stuff in, say, a public HN thread. The ability should be exercised only under the supervision of a lawyer, which limits bad behavior and creates attorney-client privilege for discussions of what might be found.
- nasalgoat 5y ago
  We were investigating the employee as part of their offboarding.
  - renewiltord 5y ago
    Okay, man, I’ll trust that you’re doing this because they were stealing stuff or something like that but if it’s just sucking at their job then damn, dude. That’s like kinda a shitty thing. Sure it’s company hardware, and you get to do this shit but damn that shit would be like “I gotta get out of here” if I heard IT was scanning people’s browser history for sucking at their jobs. EDIT: The lawsuit thing makes this even worse. If I even heard that someone was suing their employees for poor performance I am like straight up blackballing that company and all of its damn subsidiaries as places to work. Like my friends would know, my family would know, friends of my family would know. I’m sorry, this is straight up unacceptable to me.
    - reidjs 5y ago
      I assume it's for liability reasons in case they start a lawsuit.
    - vlunkr 5y ago
      Agreed. If he's already been let go, who cares what's on his laptop?
    - nasalgoat 5y ago
      It's important to document and archive the contents for liability reasons, but the takeaway here is that you should remember that the laptop belongs to the company and you have zero rights to privacy on it, so conduct yourself appropriately.
      - makapuf 5y ago
        Depends where. Here in Europe it has been said that a Personal folder cannot be looked at by the company. But ofc it can ask you to delete it or fire you if you spend too much time idling but Personal data is Personal.
- ElViajero 5y ago
  > I don’t see why anyone would do anything else. Because that is the smart thing to do. I got to purchase my laptop when I left the company, and they still wiped it out before handling it. It protects them and it protects me. I do not want access to any company resource, it can only hurt me. And they are not interested anymore on what was in the laptop either.
- zero_deg_kevin 5y ago
  It’s pretty common practice to capture system images from returned employee equipment when they’re fired for cause (at least in the US). But it’s also pretty common for technicians to be forbidden from browsing those files without a very good reason.
- throwaway_egbs 5y ago
  Agreed, this is creepy, unnecessary, and possibly even damaging to whatever litigation is pending. (Assuming the litigation thing is even true, which I personally doubt.) Even if they do need an image of the drive, the people in IT shouldn’t be the ones pawing through it. That’s a job for a professional investigator or a lawyer. I ran an IT department for four years and if any of my staff did something like this, at the very least they’d be getting a closed door conversation about why this isn’t ok.
- rodgerd 5y ago
  I used to work with a security guy who tried to make it a policy that staff would have to hand over their social media logins to make sure that they weren't talking to anyone or having any conversations that were "suspicious". Fortunately that idea was beaten to a bloody pulp by the HR team before it got off the ground. But you would not believe the mall cop mentality in many companies.
asdff 5y ago
I'm convinced the doorway to personal use on work hardware is the free printing. I still find half printed mapquest directions piling up in the copy room, in this day and age no less.
- dylan604 5y ago
  MapQuest prints? Did we jump back in time? Do people still do this? Edit: I see the printing part. I guess I was more shocked at the call out to MapQuest.
  - gmadsen 5y ago
    for long cross country trips, I do this. I have been burned before..
    - sonofhans 5y ago
      Consider a AAA membership. Their maps are high-quality, frquently-updated, and entirely free. You can walk into any AAA on any day and get as many free maps as you can carry. Not to mention the roadside assistance and towing coverage. I take long roadtrips too. The couple times that AAA has saved me make all the yearly dues worthwhile. E.g., once they arranged a 300-mile tow from a small coastal town back home; it took less than an hour to setup and didn’t cost me a dime. The alternative would have been paying next-day air freight on a Mercedes alternator and battery, and staying another 2 days to get the work done.
      - eqvinox 5y ago
        For a non-US dweller: how frequent are AAAs and how easy are they to find? (Because, in Germany, even if you're an ADAC member, you'd be hard pressed to find an ADAC-affiliated office to pick up a map from...)
        sonofhans 5y ago
        “Over 1000” their website says — https://newsroom.aaa.com/about/ https://newsroom.aaa.com/about/. I can’t find anything more definitive. I’ve never had trouble finding one.
duxup 5y ago
First 'real' job I had I was a 20 something working in an office of mostly 40+ guys. (dot.com era had taken off and the company needed warm bodies) As typical I became the guy who could help coworkers fix basic PC stuff quick. I didn't mind this as I got to know my coworkers and really just did simple things for just our small team. One guy calls me over to help him with why he couldn't open some images on his computer. I fix the file association and ... yeah it's porn. A little while later a guy brings in an old digital camera (back when they had some weird proprietary formats for images). Yeah his daughters were taking pics of them standing by the highway flashing traffic as it goes by. Nothing ever came of any of it, but here I was thinking loading a bunch of mp3s on my computer was a bit dicey.... I'm not sure people's attitudes have changed that much in the following decades.
paulpauper 5y ago
How come this was never brought up during a performance review
OminousWeapons 5y ago
I would add that you should avoid connecting your personal devices to corporate networks until you understand their usage policies.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

renewiltord 5y ago

Man, y’all are weird, reading browser history and shit. I would just remote wipe the computer and leave it be. That’s what my last employer did. They just Fleetsmithed it to zero and left me with the MacBook Pro. I don’t see why anyone would do anything else.

marcinzm 5y ago
If they were let go for cause then the laptop history is useful probably in case of lawsuit or unemployment claims.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Is it, though? I genuinely don’t think so. Performance stuff like this is usually documented via your HR stuff, the PIP etc. “This guy was browsing incel forums from this time to this time” Which court in what land uses that information? Sounds kind of mythical, especially since I’m sure there’s an army of other people on idiot forums like that who are nonetheless performing fine. EDIT: Okay, you guys hit me with sufficient downvotes that I’m rate limited so I know the predominant view is different. Fine. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll tell you this. If some rando IT dude is going through folks’ computers after they quit and I find out, I am quitting your company and telling everyone. I have never done that to anyone reporting to me and no company has ever done that to me. I can’t believe you’d accept these work conditions. Wild.
  - marcinzm 5y ago
    >Fine. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll tell you this. If some rando IT dude is going through folks’ computers after they quit and I find out, I am quitting your company and telling everyone. I have never done that to anyone reporting to me and no company has ever done that to me. I can’t believe you’d accept these work conditions. Wild. Every large company I've worked at or heard of it's pretty much assumed that IT may monitor everything you do on their machine. Everyone knew this. Which is why you don't use the company laptop for personal use.
    - mewpmewp2 5y ago
      Is it same in EU? If I read the law correctly I understood they need a good reason to monitor and they definitely need to notify you and ask for consent. I have been using my work laptop quite heavily for personal use and I would prefer not to stop honestly. I believe my intentions are pure and to provide value, I understand world is not perfect, but I would not want to work for an employer that needed to monitor me.
      - Sebb767 5y ago
        IANAL, but as far as I read into the situation, employee monitoring is a very dangerous field. There are exceptions, however, such as company-provided http(s) proxies and more concrete monitoring or investigation when suspicion arises (I know of two cases where employees were suspected of consuming child porn and they were both monitored as well as having their hardware seized). Lastly, the companies or specific malicious admins might simply not care about the legality and still monitor you - either for company reasons or simply to stir through your data. If they have admin access to your computer, it's simply not your computer.
    - snowwrestler 5y ago
      IT may have the legal right and often the technical ability to monitor any activity on work computers. But it is stupid to allow any old IT staff to do so, and this thread is a good illustration of why: because most IT staff do not have the discipline or smarts to keep what they learn sufficiently confidential. Allowing IT staff to browse the files of other staff at will can lead to other HR problems such as harassment or even blackmail, or loss of corporate reputation if people post embarrassing stuff in, say, a public HN thread. The ability should be exercised only under the supervision of a lawyer, which limits bad behavior and creates attorney-client privilege for discussions of what might be found.
nasalgoat 5y ago
We were investigating the employee as part of their offboarding.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Okay, man, I’ll trust that you’re doing this because they were stealing stuff or something like that but if it’s just sucking at their job then damn, dude. That’s like kinda a shitty thing. Sure it’s company hardware, and you get to do this shit but damn that shit would be like “I gotta get out of here” if I heard IT was scanning people’s browser history for sucking at their jobs. EDIT: The lawsuit thing makes this even worse. If I even heard that someone was suing their employees for poor performance I am like straight up blackballing that company and all of its damn subsidiaries as places to work. Like my friends would know, my family would know, friends of my family would know. I’m sorry, this is straight up unacceptable to me.
  - reidjs 5y ago
    I assume it's for liability reasons in case they start a lawsuit.
  - vlunkr 5y ago
    Agreed. If he's already been let go, who cares what's on his laptop?
  - nasalgoat 5y ago
    It's important to document and archive the contents for liability reasons, but the takeaway here is that you should remember that the laptop belongs to the company and you have zero rights to privacy on it, so conduct yourself appropriately.
    - makapuf 5y ago
      Depends where. Here in Europe it has been said that a Personal folder cannot be looked at by the company. But ofc it can ask you to delete it or fire you if you spend too much time idling but Personal data is Personal.
ElViajero 5y ago
> I don’t see why anyone would do anything else. Because that is the smart thing to do. I got to purchase my laptop when I left the company, and they still wiped it out before handling it. It protects them and it protects me. I do not want access to any company resource, it can only hurt me. And they are not interested anymore on what was in the laptop either.
zero_deg_kevin 5y ago
It’s pretty common practice to capture system images from returned employee equipment when they’re fired for cause (at least in the US). But it’s also pretty common for technicians to be forbidden from browsing those files without a very good reason.
throwaway_egbs 5y ago
Agreed, this is creepy, unnecessary, and possibly even damaging to whatever litigation is pending. (Assuming the litigation thing is even true, which I personally doubt.) Even if they do need an image of the drive, the people in IT shouldn’t be the ones pawing through it. That’s a job for a professional investigator or a lawyer. I ran an IT department for four years and if any of my staff did something like this, at the very least they’d be getting a closed door conversation about why this isn’t ok.
rodgerd 5y ago
I used to work with a security guy who tried to make it a policy that staff would have to hand over their social media logins to make sure that they weren't talking to anyone or having any conversations that were "suspicious". Fortunately that idea was beaten to a bloody pulp by the HR team before it got off the ground. But you would not believe the mall cop mentality in many companies.

asdff 5y ago

I'm convinced the doorway to personal use on work hardware is the free printing. I still find half printed mapquest directions piling up in the copy room, in this day and age no less.

dylan604 5y ago
MapQuest prints? Did we jump back in time? Do people still do this? Edit: I see the printing part. I guess I was more shocked at the call out to MapQuest.
- gmadsen 5y ago
  for long cross country trips, I do this. I have been burned before..
  - sonofhans 5y ago
    Consider a AAA membership. Their maps are high-quality, frquently-updated, and entirely free. You can walk into any AAA on any day and get as many free maps as you can carry. Not to mention the roadside assistance and towing coverage. I take long roadtrips too. The couple times that AAA has saved me make all the yearly dues worthwhile. E.g., once they arranged a 300-mile tow from a small coastal town back home; it took less than an hour to setup and didn’t cost me a dime. The alternative would have been paying next-day air freight on a Mercedes alternator and battery, and staying another 2 days to get the work done.
    - eqvinox 5y ago
      For a non-US dweller: how frequent are AAAs and how easy are they to find? (Because, in Germany, even if you're an ADAC member, you'd be hard pressed to find an ADAC-affiliated office to pick up a map from...)
      - sonofhans 5y ago
        “Over 1000” their website says — https://newsroom.aaa.com/about/ https://newsroom.aaa.com/about/. I can’t find anything more definitive. I’ve never had trouble finding one.

duxup 5y ago

First 'real' job I had I was a 20 something working in an office of mostly 40+ guys. (dot.com era had taken off and the company needed warm bodies) As typical I became the guy who could help coworkers fix basic PC stuff quick. I didn't mind this as I got to know my coworkers and really just did simple things for just our small team. One guy calls me over to help him with why he couldn't open some images on his computer. I fix the file association and ... yeah it's porn. A little while later a guy brings in an old digital camera (back when they had some weird proprietary formats for images). Yeah his daughters were taking pics of them standing by the highway flashing traffic as it goes by. Nothing ever came of any of it, but here I was thinking loading a bunch of mp3s on my computer was a bit dicey.... I'm not sure people's attitudes have changed that much in the following decades.

paulpauper 5y ago

How come this was never brought up during a performance review

OminousWeapons 5y ago

I would add that you should avoid connecting your personal devices to corporate networks until you understand their usage policies.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]