The problem that's developed over the past few decades is two-fold, imo.

1) The misunderstanding about work computers. They belong to the employers, not the employees. Much like company vehicles whereon are signs saying, 'if you see me speeding please call 555-1212' or 'if you see me using a cell phone while operating this vehicle please call...', and employers have the right to do that. The machines are owned by the companies and therefore a misuse of them--or any unauthorized use--can result in consequences.

2) The other is "policy". It has led to a growing lack of common sense amongst employers and those who wish to climb the corporate ladder.

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True stories (or things your grandmother never told you about).

a) Young teacher new to teaching. Prescribed a medication that exacerbates the effects of alcohol. She was unaware of that at the time. She had a few beers after work at a bar in a small town. Ended up lap dancing with a guy. She was called up before the school board and asked for her resignation. He union did a little digging. The legal rep was with her at the meeting. She refused to resign. The board was going to force her resignation. The union rep pointed out that the person she was dancing with was the 'PTA' chairman and wouldn't this be a lovely story for the newspapers. That was the end of it.

b) Teachers have to follow both the law of the land and also education law. 16-year-old boy tells a teacher to go fuck herself. The teacher slaps him across the face. In court, the union lawyer asks the kid's mother what she would have done had her son said that to her. She said 'I'd have smacked him'. The union lawyer turned to the judge and said, 'under section such and such my client was acting in loco parentis and only did what the parent would have done.' Case was dismissed. (The law states that the teacher must act in a manner such that s/he will do what a reasonable parent would do. The parent had been asked if she was a reasonable parent and had stated she was.)


Policy: that lovely term which translates to "I don't have to think." We see it more and more, and more and more we see it has aspects of stupidity in its construction. I know of a school that had a no-hats policy. I didn't care about that policy, so I asked my students not to wear hats in the class not because of the policy but because it was rude. My students accepted that. The school wasn't really pleased. I'd argued against prescriptive classroom signs that had teachers have to put lists of rules on their walls. Dang. Many read like the Code of Hammurabi or the Ten Commandments. I got the authorities POed when I hung a list of two:

1) Please be polite
2) Don't snore

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I grew up in a time when we we taught to mind our own business. In a district where if you didn't mind your own business you got a few reminders from folks about yer place in the grand scheme of things, and later in life it was clear that sticking yer face where it didn't belong could gain you a vertical trip down the river. For some reason, government feels it has a right to demand information from me. In some instances it does. In others, it doesn't.

Years ago I was one of the one-in-ten (20?) people chosen to fill out the loooooooooog census form. No problem. EXCEPT, as the census takers were handing me the package I received a brief lecture that went: If you don't answer every question you face possible fines and or incarceration. I handed the package back and said: Please return this to the originators with my best wishes for them to have a nice day and my further wish that they put this package where the sun don't shine. Then I closed the door. Next day the district supervisor knocked. He was polite. "There was a problem yesterday, Mr XXX." "No problem, but if you intend to read me the riot act, spare yourself. I was told I had to fill out this form or I'd be fined or sent to some prison somewhere. First, I'm broke, so fine me all you want. Second, in prison I'd get three meals a day which is more than I'm getting now with the added benefit that someone else would do the cooking."

He smiled and did something the first census takers shout have done. He said, "Mr XXX, would you please fill out this government census form." I replied, "That a threat?" He said no. Whereupon I accepted the forms and did, leaving out answers to three questions, one of them being about religion. I put NBB instead with an asterix where I noted I felt that was nobody's business.

Anyway, some of this is off topic. There are some things that are nobody's business, and just because someone under the guise of authority says it's their business dosen't make it their business unless you allow them to. I hold that truth to be self evident.

IMO