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Female spies of MI6

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Re: Female spies of MI6

#151

Post by _carbyau_ »

petsormeat wrote: post #89

> 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.

My first days of work included first level IT support including onsite. The secretaries or personal assistants were THE people to go to. They knew everything!

Re: Female spies of MI6

#152

Post by _carbyau_ »

Anyone else think it was off to have several statements that decried having details that might identify staff. Such as:

> I have agreed to change their names and omit certain details to protect them

But then "Rebecca" has a one/two bridge walk described in detail and with personal description:

> She is in her mid-fifties, with a round face, angular Cubitts spectacles and searching green-brown eyes.

These things don't match. Either the service didn't care or it's intentionally deceiving - hopefully the latter if you want competence.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#153

Post by permo-w »

etrevino wrote: post #24
giantg2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 can speak as someone who was in the same situation as the teens. This is about the time that the kids begin to cotton on to the fact that things aren't quite right. Really, this is the point at which the parent has to start lying (as opposed to saying something like "oh I work for the government") or trust to their children's discretion. The kids' entire raising up to this point has normalized strong patriotism and…

how hard is it to say that you work in the foreign office? also surely there is training for this

Re: Female spies of MI6

#154

Post by chasd00 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #98
BurningFrog wrote: post #5

> In the past, women have been overlooked, relegated to secretarial roles or, before the SIS era, deployed as “honeytraps” to ensnare or blackmail enemies Amusing of MI6 to claim they no longer use honeytraps.

One of the most depressing things in my tech worker life is witnessing how sex starved the average FAANG caliber engineer is. The way that they got info about twitters political bias through project veritas was to... Get a cute looking girl to ask the guy nicely... How many people who are smart and well connected enough to end up being watched by three letter agencies (which is most likely more of HN userbase than th…

Heh if I was ever approached at a bar by a cute girl interested in my work the first thing I would do is call my employer’s “911” number and ask what to do next.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#155

Post by grogenaut »

belfalas wrote: post #100
petsormeat wrote: post #89

> 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.

"Admins run the world, never make them angry." :)

Bribe the IT staff and the Admins with whatever treats they want constantly... -me

I worked in an amazon building where we got free energy drinks but no one else did... the head of IT for the building loved red bull sugar free. I'd roll down there to get something fixed and bring one for him and I knew what the others wanted. He'd waddle over from behind his desk and see what I needed as soon as I set the drinks on the table. He was a manager, never did anything for anyone else but the EAs in bulk. People complained verbally, he'd just say "he filed a ticket yesterday". I'd sit around sipping a drink while he told me about working on paul allen's yacht's AV system even tho I was missing a meeting. You gotta know who to be nice to. His stories were good too.

Another guy loved me forever cause I walked in to IT on my first day looking for a mac when they didn't give them by default... before talking to me he was like "WTF is this thing how do I quit" and I said "escape : wq" and he's like wtf how do you know that and I was like "it's that or emacs"... instant first person service from then on.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#156

Post by porknubbins »

blep_ wrote: post #116
hallway_monitor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory "I'm sure you're fun at parties". Honestly though why would anyone have this attitude? It seems like having a conversation with someone while getting your hair cut has zero downside, and the guaranteed upside both of you being a little more entertained. Possible upsides are actually getting into a meaningful conversation or stumbling on a new opportunity. Seems like a win-win to me.

Because I... don't like talking to people? It's not entertaining to me, it's excruciating.

When forced to make smalltalk with zero shared context with someone I find it a huge burden to avoid saying something weird, or offensive or too random, its like the filter is too strict to be able to say anything interesting so its not worth the mental effort. People who enjoy smalltalk seem to be much less sensitive to whether the person is interested or agrees and are more willing to take conversational chances.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#157

Post by lmz »

implements wrote: post #54
pazimzadeh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this feels like a submarine article

It’s certainly a PR piece - I wondered what the purpose was beyond the obvious and naive ‘getting more women into Intelligence’? Elsewhere there’s been news stories about British MPs complaining that the security and intelligence services have too high a media profile … so perhaps there’s some ‘push and pull’ going on behind the scenes.

Well maybe this is just to reach out to the target audience that reads the FT instead of Mumsnet (which was mentioned in the article as one of the places they advertised on).

Re: Female spies of MI6

#158

Post by bpye »

thefounder wrote: post #9

>> 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?

It's mentioned that past a point the cover of working at the Foreign Office is unsustainable. They give an example of having 6 mobile phones in your bag, and needing to leave a dinner with friends at a moments notice. I wager it's better to tell them (which is allowed as they are immediate family) and have the conversation about discretion, rather than have them put the pieces together themselves.

Re: Female spies of MI6

#159

Post by bpye »

jll29 wrote: post #131
etrevino wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's old and "expired" data from over thirty years ago and the family member I'm discussing is open about it, now. What needs to stay quiet (in this instance) is operational details, not that this person did the work. So your point doesn't really stand. I felt it was useful information and it was information that was safe for me to share, so I did. The Financial Times article is, of course, intended to promote the…

In the UK, the government has a firm grip on the media, and that is enshrined by law; that's why The Guardian broke the Snowden story from their U.S. office, where freedom of speech is (more) protected. The author is a former security correspondent, and was perhaps chosen as someone known and trusted. The article is a recruiting piece targeting well-educated females; but the same (Oxbridge) females can earn six digit…

> The article is a recruiting piece targeting well-educated females; but the same (Oxbridge) females can earn six digits in finance and stay safe, instead of earning 22k and getting shot in Kandahar or stabbed in Najaf. One wonders if that combination of compensation and dangerous job spec attracts reckless or idealists personalities.

I always found that the pay scale for the security services is the same as the rest of the civil service really hard to justify. Why would I go work at GCHQ if I could make many multiples more, as a starting salary, in the private sector?

Re: Female spies of MI6

#160

Post by bpye »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #152

Anyone else think it was off to have several statements that decried having details that might identify staff. Such as: > I have agreed to change their names and omit certain details to protect them But then "Rebecca" has a one/two bridge walk described in detail and with personal description: > She is in her mid-fifties, with a round face, angular Cubitts spectacles and searching green-brown eyes. These things don't…

I fully expect that the service reviewed the article, and likely those interviewed as well to ensure they were happy with the level of detail disclosed.
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