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Female spies of MI6

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121–130 of 182 posts

Re: Female spies of MI6

#122
post #11

>> When her children were teenagers, Rebecca decided to tell them that she was a spy. “They were super sensible, and I judged the information wasn’t going to be a burden for them, that they wouldn’t tell everybody.” Is Rebecca still working there?

Yeah... not a good idea. That's the type of info you might divulge on your deathbed to adult children. Absolutely insane to tell teens while still working there.

Yea like your kids are stupid and can't tell what's going on lol

Re: Female spies of MI6

#123
post #11

>> When her children were teenagers, Rebecca decided to tell them that she was a spy. “They were super sensible, and I judged the information wasn’t going to be a burden for them, that they wouldn’t tell everybody.” Is Rebecca still working there?

Yeah... not a good idea. That's the type of info you might divulge on your deathbed to adult children. Absolutely insane to tell teens while still working there.

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but it’s actually incredibly common and even the norm for most members to tell their children before adulthood.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#124

How does spying by humans/agents even work these days? I can't imagine a british agent going around spying in North korea, China or even Russia, much less a woman. Cause if you get caught you are going to get tortured into oblivion. Hence most of these 'spies' are on a diplomatic visa to prevent getting disappeared/tortured and therefore most of their movements are easily tracked. Spying as an agent is probably the w…

Here are two very in-depth interviews with two recently retired individuals who get into a lot of the mechanics of how that works in reality.

Doug London https://youtu.be/aV9HdJtPbZA

Jim Lawler https://youtu.be/AFnfTDbcPOA

Re: Female spies of MI6

#125
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this extends to lower status roles in general - I have also worked as a secretary as a male and found the same thing

Everyone talks to the barber.

I used to work in financial services as a quant. Friend of mine told me about when they were doing a huge arb in the metals markets they needed to do a trade where they took physical delivery of a very very very substantial amount of gold. Like think super villain in a movie doing a heist type of levels. So naturally the team who knew what was going down was kept super small and the details were kept really tight. Morning of the trade my friend goes to get his hair cut. Barber says to him “so I hear you guys took delivery of a bunch of gold”. My friends chin hit the floor.

Turns out one of the security guards came to get his hair cut and was moaning about how tired his arms were from unloading the vans and putting it all in the vault.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#127

>> When her children were teenagers, Rebecca decided to tell them that she was a spy. “They were super sensible, and I judged the information wasn’t going to be a burden for them, that they wouldn’t tell everybody.” Is Rebecca still working there?

Earlier in the article:

> [...] working at MI6 is a distinctly strange experience. You cannot tell anyone beyond close family who your employer is, and even they are not allowed to know anything about your day-to-day activities.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#128
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone talks to the barber.

Not me. I just want them to cut my hair. No talking, just cut.

ἀδολέσχου δὲ κουρέως ἐρωτήσαντος αὐτόν, “πῶς σε κείρω;” “σιωπῶν,” ἔφη.

When a talkative barber asked him [Archelaus, king of Macedonia], ‘How should I cut your hair?’ he said, ‘In silence!’

— Plutarch

Re: Female spies of MI6

#129
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone talks to the barber.

I used to work in financial services as a quant. Friend of mine told me about when they were doing a huge arb in the metals markets they needed to do a trade where they took physical delivery of a very very very substantial amount of gold. Like think super villain in a movie doing a heist type of levels. So naturally the team who knew what was going down was kept super small and the details were kept really tight. Mo…

Something something weakest link.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#130

> why women often make the best spies for our times When I worked as a secretary, I was amazed at how unguarded men are in front of women in the workplace, particularly those of us in lower status roles. They seemed to think we had no capacity for thought or language, and were safe background decor for any conversation. I really worry that foreign service clerical staff are treated appropriately.

I found this extends to lower status roles in general - I have also worked as a secretary as a male and found the same thing

I worked as a security guard in various locations and same thing, people would speak unfiltered and candid around me to others.
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