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When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

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Re: When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

#321

Post by noobiemcfoob »

brokenmachine wrote: post #320
noobiemcfoob wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No job is interesting enough that I would tolerate targeting and succeeding in firing a productive employee for internal politics. Doubly so if that behavior is coming from a department nominally in a support role. That's a dog to be put down.

There was probably other factors. Good pay/conditions/close to home/etc. Also it's not always so easy to up and quit every time someone looks at you the wrong way.

Maybe, but it's that type thinking that permits the behavior in the first place. People built the workplace and people decide what is acceptable.

Deciding to leave doesn't mean put in your notice. It means look elsewhere. Leaving a job without another secured is always precarious absent a nest egg.

Re: When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

#322

Post by brokenmachine »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #255
rb808 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most of the reasons for admin rights are no longer valid. Its easy to change user environment variables and lots of applications can be installed as a user. Why would you need admin rights? Dropbox/googledrive is a huge security hole that is definitely blocked at most companies I work at.

> lots of applications can be installed as a user. Because most of the non-insignificant ones still CAN'T be, under Windows, to this day. So special people get a completely separate account with pseudo-admin rights. I have to enter those credentials several times a day. Then I spoke to a help desk guy, who said he had to enter his domain admin account password 40 TIMES a day. What a waste.

40 times? I enter passwords probably double that per day.

Re: When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

#323

Post by brokenmachine »

awinder wrote: post #38
thisisnico wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I find it odd when you treat it as if everyone else that you work with is a customer. I don't believe in this philosophy. The business is my customer. The business is what IT is trying to protect. If you have individuals that are not following policies, they would be disciplined like HR would discipline for not following policies. It's all in place to protect the business and what's best for the busines…

Implicit in protecting a business is that the business continues to exist, i.e., that it's run competently and can hit revenue targets, it can grow, etc. Focusing on rules & decorum is playing from behind, rather than thinking about how IT can become a trusted partner from inception (so that you are out ahead). BTW -- if IT's goal is really to protect the business, then you should find & discover the ways people are…

>These people finding security holes should be lauded as whitehats finding your mistakes, not people to be punished for not following rules.

Yes but often if that whitehat reported it and they closed those "holes" you wouldn't be able to get work done, because you can be sure that they wouldn't go the extra mile to create a system where you can do stuff, they'd just close the "holes".

Re: When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

#324

Post by brokenmachine »

jjoonathan wrote: post #24
thisisnico wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I find it odd when you treat it as if everyone else that you work with is a customer. I don't believe in this philosophy. The business is my customer. The business is what IT is trying to protect. If you have individuals that are not following policies, they would be disciplined like HR would discipline for not following policies. It's all in place to protect the business and what's best for the busines…

Sure -- if we also discipline IT when their policies fail to meet business needs, because they ultimately serve the business, not themselves. It's really easy to secure / fix / support a system by making it nonfunctional and redefining that as success.

>It's really easy to secure / fix / support a system by making it nonfunctional and redefining that as success.

Lol! I'm stealing that.

Re: When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

#325

Post by woofie11 »

basch wrote: post #314
woofie11 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't quite think you understand the point of a support role. People who support me do a lot of innovation, fixing what isn't broken, and all of that. Most are highly empowered and I expect a few to take serious leadership roles in the organization, depending on seniority. The primary question is one of purpose: someone in a support role is hired to keep me effective and productive, and evaluated on their ability t…

You are using IT as synonymous with Support/Helpdesk. Do you have an enterprise architect, do they report to the CIO? Maybe its the COO? Do you not consider systems architecture a part of your IT department? I absolutely think you are wrong that innovating is derived from your needs, a technology group driving innovation could just as well include obsoleting you. An IT department can bring new business ideas to a lea…

I am using IT to refer to more than support/help desk. It includes, for example, having a working network, email, and CRM. It includes custom database applications. It includes an internal wiki and an external web site. It includes lots of other things.

All of those things are there to support the business, not the other way around.

Re: When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

#326

Post by pickle-wizard »

antod wrote: post #241
pickle-wizard wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me about the story of a University that an old DEC VAX that got walled up during a remodel. Machine kept running and no one notice. A decade later another remodel came along and they tore down the wall to find the machine just happily running.

I remember an old Netware version of that story.

You know, maybe it was Netware. My memory has some bitrot in it after all these years.
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