Re: slightly off topic - "break" a database

It seems my response brought forth a couple of strong responses. While Paul's friend probably is smart and knowledgable enough to recognize that Paul had 'got' him, I think that anytime an action intended as a joke can affect someone's job performance that the action has gone past being a joke to being an error in judgement. I have committed a few of these myself though not necessarily of the same type as being discussed here. The following opinion is not intended to refer to Paul's specific action, since his friend is probably using these posts to beat Paul, but is a general statement on office jokes.

What if the victim wasn't sharp enough to recognize that they had been victimized and that an easy fix existed or that Paul was unavailable to tell them the fix. They could have been forced to perform a recovery which potentially could have caused the loss of work since the last backup. You have to draw a line on what is acceptable and what isn't. Modifying someone's UNIX profile or .custom file so that a screen of "Go Blue" appears on a Spartan fan's logon or you change their PC desktop background to the overhead shot of the opposing college stadium is, at most, mildly annoying. It has no real potential to cause permanent harm. But stopping a piece of software that someone uses in their job from working seems like a poor joke.

What is done by more senior (alright older) employees is copied by less experienced employees so while Paul's friend may well be able to handle the joke the next victim may not fare so well.

IMHO -- Mark D Powell -- Received on Fri Aug 26 2005 - 09:26:30 CDT