CV's and work computers

Is someone stupid if they use their workstation to write a lengthy job application and CV in work hours and then go off sick leaving it for the day on the desktop in a folder called 'my details' for their manager and any passing colleague to see (knowing that everyone has access to each other's computers)?

I'd say no not stupid but maybe a bit silly, personally I'd have password locked it if I had to leave it on a work PC that everyone had access to, but then again it depends how detrimental it would be to that person's career should their boss have seen it.

Pretty daft since they've have informal warning for poor attendance. It' s a Mac so you can't password protect but it got me that it was on the desktop - I'd have hidden it away somewhere.

It's a bit like using WAN - I''ll hang around here when I've got nothing else to do or whilst I'm on lunch (like now) but when this document was created we were at full stretch. Either I'm a crap manager or employ shit people... grrrrr.

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Or it's a shit place to work and people are desperate to escape.

If they have had an informal warning for attendance then maybe you should be encouraging them to look for jobs elsewhere.

Workplaces are dripping with hypocrisy anyway. At any one time the entire company may be searching for other places to work, yet it all has to be kept under wraps until an offer is definitely secured. This includes a 'doctor's appointment' or a half days leave for some spurious reason so that people can attend interviews.

I know that people feel "their card is marked" after receiving a warning. You can pretty much kiss a raise or promotion goodbye and besides it's quite a nice refreshing feeling to clean the slate at a new workplace.

Why did you open a document on someone's desktop called 'my details'? You wouldn't go through someone's desk drawer would you? And a folder called 'my details' is so obviously not a folder of ongoing work.

You are only their manager. You are not, in the celestial scheme of things, important. You do not have 24 hour access to their soul.

Damn office hierarchies.

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While I agree it is stupid - be a little careful with the "It's a work computer I can look at any of it". If there is a folder marked "John Smith - Personal" or a personal folder in the email system, i.e. something clearly marked as not work related, then I believe the employee has no rights to look at it.

I agree with Morsey but only if it had been marked 'Personal', 'Private' or similar, however if you go on sick leave for the day and someone needs one of your files to do something in your absence then it would make sense (to me anyways) to also but not only look in a file marked 'my details' as this is fairly generic and gives no indication as to if these details are personal or work related.

You are only their manager. You are not, in the celestial scheme of things, important. You do not have 24 hour access to their soul.

Damn office hierarchies.

When me and the rest of the department have worked until 7 at night and this person is sitting on their arse writing out their CV when they have a perfectly adequate laptop at home then I bloody well will have access to their soul at work

To clarify, if we’re not busy then I don’t much mind what people do – we don’t have blockers on sites like Facebook or yahoo etc but if we’re struggling under the work load then I do very much care since I'd like us all to go home on time. If we’re busy then you won’t see me much on WAN. It wasn’t actually me that found it but a colleague who was amazed to find the already open on the desktop. If it was labelled confidential then I won't touch it (my ivf stuff is here and well buried but also marked private) - I'd leave that to a director.

You may call me Adolf by the way.

I hate the management role. Especially when daft people turn your efforts to be as reasonable and pleasant as possible into unnecessarily hard work.

Yep. I hate the stupid fine line between being cool so people are comfortable and happy but not cutting so much slack that they take advantage and having to remember that my boss is breathing down my neck because he thinks that I've cut too much slack and they are skiving but then is that creating double standards....blah blah blah.

Back to THL's comment (which was posted in typical blunt style...) 'You are only their manager. You are not, in the celestial scheme of things, important. You do not have 24 hour access to their soul.

No I don't but my boss has 24 hour access to mine.

That's his karma, not yours.

I see my manager once a month if I'm lucky, last time he came visiting the first thing he did was ask to check his Facebook account!

I have a load of personal stuff on my pc - it's in files, I'm sure the IT dept. can access it without any problems if need be.

I need to update my CV, I don't wish to leave this job anytime soon and hope to transfer back to London in two years, but I can update my CV in my spare time at work...

My assistant left last month and I knew he was looking for a new job so I said to him "Don't lie about Doctor's appointments and arriving late - just tell me as I'm happy to let you go to these interviews". He did, he got a new job, he left... but he left a mate and was extremely thankful to me for letting him persue his dreams.

As soon as a boss thinks they have ultimate power and say over all those "below them" they need shooting in the knee cap to wisen up. People like that are just scared zeros who fear they are nothing without their job, and most of them are.

When you are a boss you have the power to make people's working environments good and you have the chance to make people enjoy their work and bring about a little love and respect into the daily work routine. As soon as you act like a tie-Nazi you have lost the plot. Work is important, work is not ALL.

I'm goong to call my boss in a minute and have a chat about the football and the rugby... oh, I have a big report ready to send him also and require some cost centre codes off of him... but I'll chew the breeze before that work stuff gets in the way... he'll do the same.

Getting up at 7am is hell enough so if you can make difference in the workplace... do so.

Although pre-work exercise and prayer is pushing it.

I never want to go into management

I'm going to "mentor" our new graduates next month and that's terrifying enough

how about a company song?

Ababoonsas - what a refreshingly sensible post.

(Although, of course, there are times when people do push it a bit and then the only solution is a sound spanking - I find that if people really have difficulty in changing their ways, the spanking should be daily until they get it right. Mind you, it means I have to sit on a very soft cushion for a day or two afterwards, but that's the price I pay for staff development).

Ababoonsas - what a refreshingly sensible post.

Yes, very much so. I think I've come across as a bit of a bitch of a boss which wasn't the intention. In many respects I think I'm too soft and spend far too much time down the pub with the people I work with (who form a percentage of my facebook friends!)

It's horrid being middle management - I found it much easier running my own business - and I always think it's like being one of those police officers that aren't - community support or whatever they're called - you can't arrest anyone but are meant to maintain some degree of order. Some days it's very frustrating.