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I manage a small town computer store and had an incident occur a couple of days ago. I'm partially venting, and partially wondering how much of this, if any, is our fault.
Wednesday-ish last week my head technician goes to a client's office because of an infected computer. She walks in, asks the owner of the business whose computer is infected, and goes over to talk to that person.
This isn't a huge office, the building is maybe a hundred feet long. The middle portion is around 50 feet in length and relatively wide open with a few desks.
My technician, J, talks to the user of the infected computer, let's call her Kay, as well as a woman who is basically the 3rd in charge, we'll call her Jane. Informs Kay that a virus has put porn on her system and it needs to come back to the shop to get repaired. Jane makes a joke to the effect of: "Are you going to be able to stay away from the porn until this gets fixed?" Kay laughs.
We fix the computer and return it a couple of days later.
Sunday morning my other technician, G, is cleaning up the store right before it opens. The irate husband of Kay comes up to the door and starts knocking on it and yelling. G lets him in. Kay's husband informs G who he is and blows a gasket. Claims that J was "walking up and down the aisle, informing people that his wife had porn on her computer", the wife is now mortified and he's demanding an apology to his wife and he's going to get the owner of the company to not use our services any longer. G calms him down, tells him J will call his wife Tuesday. (today) as we're closed Mondays.
I speak to J today. She informs me that she only spoke to Kay and Jane. Certainly did not "march up and down the aisle" informing the entire office there was porn on Kay's computer. (which was a side-effect of the virus, anyway, not something Kay did on purpose) She calls over to the business and speaks to Kay. Reiterates several times that she only spoke to Jane and Kay. (albeit close to the wide-open area I mentioned - although I am not sure how many people, if any, were working there at that time) Kay says to her something to the effect of "it's okay for co-workers to joke about it" - basically saying that it's okay if her co-workers make fun of her but anyone who doesn't work there can't. Which my tech says she didn't do anyway! Kay finally ends the conversation with "Well it's happened and it's done." and hangs up on J.
So J is going to call the owner in a little while to see if things are kosher with him. Naturally, I offered to call him or anyone else for that matter if she needs me to go to bat for her. But she seems to want to handle it herself, and I trust her to be professional.
So the question is: was it J's fault for mentioning the porn in a relatively public environment, even though it was supposedly made clear that it was the virus that put it there and not the user?
Was Kay being the SC because she overreacted?
Or both?
Days like this, I just want to pack up my things and drive west until I hit ocean.
Wednesday-ish last week my head technician goes to a client's office because of an infected computer. She walks in, asks the owner of the business whose computer is infected, and goes over to talk to that person.
This isn't a huge office, the building is maybe a hundred feet long. The middle portion is around 50 feet in length and relatively wide open with a few desks.
My technician, J, talks to the user of the infected computer, let's call her Kay, as well as a woman who is basically the 3rd in charge, we'll call her Jane. Informs Kay that a virus has put porn on her system and it needs to come back to the shop to get repaired. Jane makes a joke to the effect of: "Are you going to be able to stay away from the porn until this gets fixed?" Kay laughs.
We fix the computer and return it a couple of days later.
Sunday morning my other technician, G, is cleaning up the store right before it opens. The irate husband of Kay comes up to the door and starts knocking on it and yelling. G lets him in. Kay's husband informs G who he is and blows a gasket. Claims that J was "walking up and down the aisle, informing people that his wife had porn on her computer", the wife is now mortified and he's demanding an apology to his wife and he's going to get the owner of the company to not use our services any longer. G calms him down, tells him J will call his wife Tuesday. (today) as we're closed Mondays.
I speak to J today. She informs me that she only spoke to Kay and Jane. Certainly did not "march up and down the aisle" informing the entire office there was porn on Kay's computer. (which was a side-effect of the virus, anyway, not something Kay did on purpose) She calls over to the business and speaks to Kay. Reiterates several times that she only spoke to Jane and Kay. (albeit close to the wide-open area I mentioned - although I am not sure how many people, if any, were working there at that time) Kay says to her something to the effect of "it's okay for co-workers to joke about it" - basically saying that it's okay if her co-workers make fun of her but anyone who doesn't work there can't. Which my tech says she didn't do anyway! Kay finally ends the conversation with "Well it's happened and it's done." and hangs up on J.
So J is going to call the owner in a little while to see if things are kosher with him. Naturally, I offered to call him or anyone else for that matter if she needs me to go to bat for her. But she seems to want to handle it herself, and I trust her to be professional.
So the question is: was it J's fault for mentioning the porn in a relatively public environment, even though it was supposedly made clear that it was the virus that put it there and not the user?
Was Kay being the SC because she overreacted?
Or both?
Days like this, I just want to pack up my things and drive west until I hit ocean.
)
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