What Not to Wear to the Office

[MicroBalrog]

It's not a tech issue, but a policy one.  How do you allow an employee who works with Top Secret data to work from home?  Do you build a scif in their house?  Do you require visitors to their home to sign a log book?

People who work with military secrets are rare.

Medical secrets, corporate secrets, etc.? I signed NDAs for my different clients.

[MillCreek]

The other day I got out of the shower late (because I got up at 7:50) and because of that I worked until lunch wearing a t-shirt, boxer briefs and one sock.

Since you were already wearing boxer briefs, where did you put the one sock?

[HeroHog]

I worked my last year and a half from home. Company policy was a week a month from home allowed but I had a medical issue and they gave me a HUGE break.

[CNYCacher]

Since you were already wearing boxer briefs, where did you put the one sock?

The boxer briefs were too short and it was cold in my office. 

[mtnbkr]

People who work with military secrets are rare.

Not around here. And, once you get into that realm, you'll find many more DOD or other secured sites where you didn't know they existed before.  Just because it looks like a standard office building from the inside doesn't mean it's one inside.

Medical secrets, corporate secrets, etc.? I signed NDAs for my different clients.

That isn't always acceptable to the data owner. 

Chris


 

[MicroBalrog]

That isn't always acceptable to the data owner. 

Chris

You will find, I think, jobs that require ABSOLUTE SECRECY to be the minority. And indeed the BLS agrees with me, as they also think far more people can be telecommuting than are doing that now.

[Tallpine]

I've done most of my software work from home over the past 15 years, but sometimes I have to go on site.

Trouble is that I sometimes go long stretches without work because I refuse to travel.

Seems like outfits are getting more and more anal about it.  I guess they're afraid someone will steal their crappy software that they want me to fix ... 

[Perd Hapley]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gugbMw4LigY

[Hawkmoon]

I've done most of my software work from home over the past 15 years, but sometimes I have to go on site.

Trouble is that I sometimes go long stretches without work because I refuse to travel.

Seems like outfits are getting more and more anal about it.  I guess they're afraid someone will steal their crappy software that they want me to fix ... 

And I guess they haven't figured out that if they CAN'T fix it but you CAN, they're probably not smart enough to stop you from stealing it right out of their headquarters building anyway.

[Tallpine]

And I guess they haven't figured out that if they CAN'T fix it but you CAN, they're probably not smart enough to stop you from stealing it right out of their headquarters building anyway.

So they gonna re-format my brain when I leave 

[Perd Hapley]

So they gonna re-format my brain when I leave 

Couldn't hurt. 

[Scout26]

I have proposed "Bathing in Whore Water" to my friend as an album title for our non-existant band.

I had a grievance filed against me by a Teamster Local 705 (Chicago Independent) Clerical because I said, and I quote:

"Nice fragrance, must you marinate in it?"

That was a fun one....

[White Horseradish]

I worked form home for a while when I was recovering from surgery. Loved it. I could easily do that at least two days a week when I am in the office by myself, anyway. But nooo... When I came back I was told to turn in my laptop. Because we don't have a policy for working from home.

[mtnbkr]

You will find, I think, jobs that require ABSOLUTE SECRECY to be the minority. And indeed the BLS agrees with me, as they also think far more people can be telecommuting than are doing that now.

That you or the BLS don't think a job requires secrecy (actually, rarely secrecy, just control over data and environment) is immaterial.  If the data owner says the data should not exist outside a particular environment, it shall not leave that environment.  The technology, bandwidth, etc for widespread telecommuting exists today and has for years, but companies are a bit squirrely about people accessing their internal networks remotely even if using a company provided and vetted machine with strong encryption on the drive and a good VPN to encrypt traffic.  There is always that chance data will be leaked through that path in their eyes. 

The data owner has the final say.

Chris

[Balog]

I strongly doubt that the widespread opposition to TC is based on concerns about data leakage.

[mtnbkr]

I strongly doubt that the widespread opposition to TC is based on concerns about data leakage.

Maybe not for all companies, but where I've worked, security was the primary issue.  TC was seen as a major vector for security threats of all kinds.  Even when TC was allowed, and this wasn't for classified data, just SBU stuff, the hoops a user had to jump through were significant.

Even at my current company, which encourages TC (to the extent that many of my coworkers worldwide TC full time), our systems are fully encrypted, all sorts of strong password and password aging policies are in effect, and we undergo yearly refresher courses that cover *how* to work from home in order to protect our systems and data (such things as not working with our screens facing windows, etc).

But what do I know?  I only have 12 years of TC and developing systems and polices to facilitate TC.  Maybe if I worked for a thinktank that published the *right* papers on the subject, I might just know what I'm talking about.

Chris

[Balog]

Really, are we gonna do the "if you dare disagree with me you must be impugning my knowledge and experience" thing now? 

How much of your experience has been with .gov or quasi-.gov companies that deal with classififed or sensitive information? Honest question, it just seems like that's been the realm of your experience, and working for .gov (either directly or for a company with .gov as a client) too long tends to give folks a different viewpoint than private sector folks.

[mtnbkr]

5 years private sector (with nearly 3 years specifically dealing with telework issues) and 10 years Fed contracting (most of that time developing TC services and policies).

Chris

[Tallpine]

I strongly doubt that the widespread opposition to TC is based on concerns about data leakage.

Most of the time it seems like a-hole managers just want someone to chew out face to face 

That, and at least six hours of meetings every day 

[mtnbkr]

I may work for a rather unique company, but we frequently have employees and managers geographically far apart.  My manager's manager is on the other side of the Atlantic.  Another coworker's manager is on the other side of the country (coworker TCs fulltime).  One guy works out of Hawaii full time from home.  I TC 2-5 days a week myself.

As for meetings, with customers and coworkers worldwide, I seldom have face-to-face meetings.  I do a lot of teleconferences with Livemeeting.  An average day for me is 2-3hrs of calls/meetings.  I've had weeks where fully 2/3 of the week was teleconferencing. Hard to get any work done those weeks...

Chris

[MicroBalrog]

That you or the BLS don't think a job requires secrecy (actually, rarely secrecy, just control over data and environment) is immaterial.  If the data owner says the data should not exist outside a particular environment, it shall not leave that environment.  The technology, bandwidth, etc for widespread telecommuting exists today and has for years, but companies are a bit squirrely about people accessing their internal networks remotely even if using a company provided and vetted machine with strong encryption on the drive and a good VPN to encrypt traffic.  There is always that chance data will be leaked through that path in their eyes. 

The data owner has the final say.

Chris

So what you're saying is that we're facing a cultural issue of companies having concerns over that topic.

Mind you, that's just the same thing that I said - that there are many jobs that could be done through TC, but aren't yet.

I expect that you're going to have more telecommuters in the future than we have now, as manager generations change.

[mtnbkr]

So what you're saying is that we're facing a cultural issue of companies having concerns over that topic.

Mind you, that's just the same thing that I said - that there are many jobs that could be done through TC, but aren't yet.

I expect that you're going to have more telecommuters in the future than we have now, as manager generations change.

No, I'm saying the technology exists, but the opportunity, for a variety of reasons, doesn't.  It's not a cultural thing as most managers I've worked with don't mind it at all.  We're not even talking about govt-level stuff.  Laws surrounding personal info, what info can leave the country (some of our customers are fully serviced out of dedicated facilities in their home countries because of this), etc make universal TC difficult to impossible. 

It's not just a matter of encrypting everything and providing lots of bandwidth.  Companies are placed at risk if they don't maintain control of their data.

Chris

[MechAg94]

I think in some cases security is as much an excuse as a reason.  I also think some companies and manager are afraid of having to grade employees on production rather than showing up. 

That said, I work in chemical plant operations.  While I do have days where I do paperwork and computer work all day, it does require face to face and hands on effort. 

[MicroBalrog]

No, I'm saying the technology exists, but the opportunity, for a variety of reasons, doesn't.  It's not a cultural thing as most managers I've worked with don't mind it at all.  We're not even talking about govt-level stuff.  Laws surrounding personal info, what info can leave the country (some of our customers are fully serviced out of dedicated facilities in their home countries because of this), etc make universal TC difficult to impossible. 

It's not just a matter of encrypting everything and providing lots of bandwidth.  Companies are placed at risk if they don't maintain control of their data.

Chris

For the record, I've been working various TC jobs since 2003.

Which is it? Is it, as you said in this post, that there are laws in your country that limit TC, or that, as you said in your previous posts, that data owners are often averse to TC?

Here is my prediction, which I think can be borne out statistically in the coming years. We can meet again in this forum as the time passes and check if Microbalrog was right:

I believe that the amount of jobs that can be implemented as TC jobs, technologically, is greater than the total of TC jobs that actually exist today. It is also constantly growing as technologies evolve. As such, we will see, in the following 5-10 years, a growth of the total number of actual TC jobs, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the economy. This is something that we will be able to verify statistically and check if I was right or wrong.

[280plus]

My division Chief wore too much cologne. His odor always arrived 20-30 seconds before he did. We considered this a good thing.