Blow the Whistle, Lose Your Job? 839
ccnull writes "You're a systems admin. On a routine PC repair, you discover a trove of child porn on an employee's PC. You call the cops. The employee pleads guilty and goes to jail. Then what do you do? You get fired. InformationWeek has an interesting expose on whistleblowers who lost their jobs, they say, because they publicly embarassed the company. The company has another version of the story. No matter what the reality is, at the center of this is a good question: If you discover illegal goodies on a machine, what should you do about it?"
Get the boss (Score:2, Funny)
#1 Reason why DVD-R is a must at work... (Score:1, Funny)
unless of course... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why do people enjoy pornography? (Score:5, Funny)
what should you do? (Score:5, Funny)
The pervert doesn't know you'll both get fired for reporting it.
I think you meant: (Score:2, Funny)
2. ?
3. Profit
Re:Don't call the cops. (Score:1, Funny)
I had my vehicle broken into twice at a company parking lot. The security person in charge DID NOT call the cops. Had I realized that he would not call them, I would have called them first.
Now, tell me exactly how the scenario is different? Don't you have a duty and an obligation to call the police when you witness a crime?
Re:Illegal things... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Goodies" (Score:5, Funny)
The sick irony is (Score:3, Funny)
A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of five.
Or maybe it's not that funny.
Re:Excuse me, but WTF!!?!? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It doesn't add up... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Whenever I encounter misdoings (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Get the boss (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Absolutely not. (Score:3, Funny)
"If you discover that an employee has, say, severed limbs in his desk drawer, it is certainly not your business to go and report him. You are not the law, you have no moral authority, and you should therefore not be able to bring punishment down upon someone who has done you no wrong. After all, you still have all your limbs, so what harm is it to you? Pure and simple."
"I know I would be very displeased if I found one of our system administrators playing "hall monitor" with our proprietary meat storage. If he can't be trusted to keep the privacy of a coworker, then who's to say that he can keep the privacy of the company's trade secrets? He would be outta here in no time."
Thank you. I'll be here all week.
Re:Illegal things... (Score:4, Funny)
Which is exactly why I can't view a site like
Yet, I've been warned more than once(informally) because the sniffer on our proxy picks up nasty words pretty frequently. The compliance guys are even thinking about banning
The only reason I haven't been warned formally or canned is because it IS a tech relted site. But this excuse is getting old.
So, hey guys, stop cursing around here. Please.
Re:This is what we've been taught since day 1. (Score:3, Funny)
The pallet of cardboard boxes?