5 ms·

This is your bosses problem. Apply security patches and reboot. Find a book to read.

GTP 3mo ago
Put like this, could sound like malicious compliance. But, if you disable whatever security product your company mandates on your company laptop and then you somehow get a malware, they will point the finger at you. Saying "I wouldn't have been able to work otherwise" will probably not work. Reboot your company laptop, let it install any patches it likes to, then complain to your manager. It is their resposibility to figure this out. If you work around this, you risk getting in trouble.
- throw-nodox-23 3mo ago
  Ah yes of this we are well aware. Don’t tell anyone!
- itake 3mo ago
  > It is their resposibility to figure this out. You're responsible for your own career. During the next calibration call, your manager can't be like, "well he spent 8 hours each week resetting up his machine after a reboot, so we need to give him credit for that too." Your job is to deliver impact, not fight system configurations.
  - GTP 3mo ago
    Indeed. The configuration isn't your responsibility, but it becomes so if you try to circumvent it and something goes wrong. What would the manager say during the calibration call if a ransomware infection started from this employee's laptop, after they disabled the company-mandated security software? They probably wouldn't even care to figure it out if the security product in question would've been able to stop that specific ransomware.
  - darkstar_16 3mo ago
    If your boss is not able to back you up for something like this, it's time to change job.
    - awakeasleep 3mo ago
      During the compensation calibration meetings, there is no boss in the world that would be able to argue anything to your benefit
      - zamadatix 3mo ago
        This has to be the most depressing comment I've read this week. I assure you, not all places are like this. Especially mid-smalll, but even some pockets inside large-mega.
        itake 3mo ago
        What company will promote you for rebooting your machine? Maybe you’re not gonna get fired, but I can’t imagine someone hitting staff level because they spent a third of their week recovering from a weekly reboot
        awakeasleep 3mo ago
        I can't believe the level of pushback we're getting on this point. Most of these people have probably never been in those meetings. Person A: Not able to accomplish anything because security blocked essential... Person B: Shipped product F, look at this impact to our KPI. Saved costs by retiring service C. Mentored little jimothy. Who get the base salary bump and bonus allocation in that scenario
      - square_usual 3mo ago
        If you think so you've only ever worked in a trash org. If my productivity was hurt by things outside my control I'd expect (and have had) managers to fight for me.
      - itake 3mo ago
  - wqaatwt 3mo ago
    Ideally you’d just leave a shithole company like this (of course these days it might be exactly feasible..) I suppose filling out a ticker or two every day and constantly bothering IT non-stop might be rhetorical best option (assumings one has enough energy for that)
    - mr_toad 3mo ago
      If only it took as long to close a ticket as to open one.
throw-nodox-23 3mo ago
Yeah.. that’s a bit where the shoe pinches. We could just grab a book and lean back - but being 0.017% (!) of the total global workforce (we’re ~70) we’d easily be seen as insignificant if we continuously don’t meet our targets. So we’re a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do we keep rolling our rock up the hill and keep going, or risk it rolling over us and squooshing us into oblivion? At this point, I’m really quite ’meh’ about it all. I guess my learning is to be very careful during acquisitions. But heck, the founders got rich and that’s their prerogative no matter my own personal views. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my job a lot and I still get paid - and fighting Big Brother and rolling this rock up the hill has almost become a sport (and running joke) here. Yesterday we noticed we were blocked from browsing an independent photographers portfolio while being prompted to use ’internal photography tooling’.
- zarzavat 3mo ago
  I think you have Stockholm syndrome. It's not worth having any loyalty to such an organization. Since they don't want you to work, just spend your working hours looking for a new job.
- drbscl 3mo ago
  > I enjoy my job a lot I'll be real with you, I wouldn't make a throwaway account to talk about a bad company policy if I enjoyed my job. I'd recommend looking for another, the job market is nowhere near as bad as people claim (at least for non-junior positions).
  - throw-the-towel 3mo ago
    The market being bad is exactly the reason to start looking for a new job now. It's probably going to be a long process, so you shouldn't wait to start it before being fired / put on a PIP / etc.
  - throw-nodox-23 3mo ago
    I hear you! And it’s not like I haven’t considered it - thing is I really do enjoy the work I get to do in this agency (which is this tiny pixel in the tapestry of Big Org CO). It’s varied, impactful, and I can morally stand behind a large portion of the projects I’m on. It’s just that.. we’re owned by Big Brother, they have little involvement in what we do other than this compliance hullabaloo. But we’re all trying to David the sh*t out of our Goliath - and to some extent we’ve actually been successful. But really I just wanted to share a story as to why I haven’t restarted my laptop in ages! Happy it lead to some fun conversations though.
francisofascii 3mo ago
Wish it was that easy. Unfortunately for many of us, our job is more about navigating roadblocks like ZScaler, negotiating with security people, and figuring out work-arounds, rather than focusing on developing software. Our bosses tell us to figure it out.
fernandotakai 3mo ago
yup, that's exactly what i do. if anything is making me less productive or just plain stopping my job, i raise an IT ticket, tell my manager and go for a walk.
- icedchai 3mo ago
  This is the right attitude, but others often refuse to press the issue. The only way this crap gets fixed is for it to cost the company enough lost productivity (and money) to make it worth fixing. If the intent is to "be secure", fix it. And fix it correctly. Don't have every developer on the same project asking for access to AWS and opening their own tickets... It's insane.

GTP 3mo ago

Put like this, could sound like malicious compliance. But, if you disable whatever security product your company mandates on your company laptop and then you somehow get a malware, they will point the finger at you. Saying "I wouldn't have been able to work otherwise" will probably not work. Reboot your company laptop, let it install any patches it likes to, then complain to your manager. It is their resposibility to figure this out. If you work around this, you risk getting in trouble.

throw-nodox-23 3mo ago
Ah yes of this we are well aware. Don’t tell anyone!
itake 3mo ago
> It is their resposibility to figure this out. You're responsible for your own career. During the next calibration call, your manager can't be like, "well he spent 8 hours each week resetting up his machine after a reboot, so we need to give him credit for that too." Your job is to deliver impact, not fight system configurations.
- GTP 3mo ago
  Indeed. The configuration isn't your responsibility, but it becomes so if you try to circumvent it and something goes wrong. What would the manager say during the calibration call if a ransomware infection started from this employee's laptop, after they disabled the company-mandated security software? They probably wouldn't even care to figure it out if the security product in question would've been able to stop that specific ransomware.
- darkstar_16 3mo ago
  If your boss is not able to back you up for something like this, it's time to change job.
  - awakeasleep 3mo ago
    During the compensation calibration meetings, there is no boss in the world that would be able to argue anything to your benefit
    - zamadatix 3mo ago
      This has to be the most depressing comment I've read this week. I assure you, not all places are like this. Especially mid-smalll, but even some pockets inside large-mega.
      - itake 3mo ago
        What company will promote you for rebooting your machine? Maybe you’re not gonna get fired, but I can’t imagine someone hitting staff level because they spent a third of their week recovering from a weekly reboot
        awakeasleep 3mo ago
        I can't believe the level of pushback we're getting on this point. Most of these people have probably never been in those meetings. Person A: Not able to accomplish anything because security blocked essential... Person B: Shipped product F, look at this impact to our KPI. Saved costs by retiring service C. Mentored little jimothy. Who get the base salary bump and bonus allocation in that scenario
    - square_usual 3mo ago
      If you think so you've only ever worked in a trash org. If my productivity was hurt by things outside my control I'd expect (and have had) managers to fight for me.
    - itake 3mo ago
- wqaatwt 3mo ago
  Ideally you’d just leave a shithole company like this (of course these days it might be exactly feasible..) I suppose filling out a ticker or two every day and constantly bothering IT non-stop might be rhetorical best option (assumings one has enough energy for that)
  - mr_toad 3mo ago
    If only it took as long to close a ticket as to open one.

throw-nodox-23 3mo ago

Yeah.. that’s a bit where the shoe pinches. We could just grab a book and lean back - but being 0.017% (!) of the total global workforce (we’re ~70) we’d easily be seen as insignificant if we continuously don’t meet our targets. So we’re a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do we keep rolling our rock up the hill and keep going, or risk it rolling over us and squooshing us into oblivion? At this point, I’m really quite ’meh’ about it all. I guess my learning is to be very careful during acquisitions. But heck, the founders got rich and that’s their prerogative no matter my own personal views. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my job a lot and I still get paid - and fighting Big Brother and rolling this rock up the hill has almost become a sport (and running joke) here. Yesterday we noticed we were blocked from browsing an independent photographers portfolio while being prompted to use ’internal photography tooling’.

zarzavat 3mo ago
I think you have Stockholm syndrome. It's not worth having any loyalty to such an organization. Since they don't want you to work, just spend your working hours looking for a new job.
drbscl 3mo ago
> I enjoy my job a lot I'll be real with you, I wouldn't make a throwaway account to talk about a bad company policy if I enjoyed my job. I'd recommend looking for another, the job market is nowhere near as bad as people claim (at least for non-junior positions).
- throw-the-towel 3mo ago
  The market being bad is exactly the reason to start looking for a new job now. It's probably going to be a long process, so you shouldn't wait to start it before being fired / put on a PIP / etc.
- throw-nodox-23 3mo ago
  I hear you! And it’s not like I haven’t considered it - thing is I really do enjoy the work I get to do in this agency (which is this tiny pixel in the tapestry of Big Org CO). It’s varied, impactful, and I can morally stand behind a large portion of the projects I’m on. It’s just that.. we’re owned by Big Brother, they have little involvement in what we do other than this compliance hullabaloo. But we’re all trying to David the sh*t out of our Goliath - and to some extent we’ve actually been successful. But really I just wanted to share a story as to why I haven’t restarted my laptop in ages! Happy it lead to some fun conversations though.

francisofascii 3mo ago

Wish it was that easy. Unfortunately for many of us, our job is more about navigating roadblocks like ZScaler, negotiating with security people, and figuring out work-arounds, rather than focusing on developing software. Our bosses tell us to figure it out.

fernandotakai 3mo ago

yup, that's exactly what i do. if anything is making me less productive or just plain stopping my job, i raise an IT ticket, tell my manager and go for a walk.

icedchai 3mo ago
This is the right attitude, but others often refuse to press the issue. The only way this crap gets fixed is for it to cost the company enough lost productivity (and money) to make it worth fixing. If the intent is to "be secure", fix it. And fix it correctly. Don't have every developer on the same project asking for access to AWS and opening their own tickets... It's insane.