Revenge Of The Nerds - Brief Article

Ever wondered if that computer whiz who fixes your hard drive at work secretly scans your e-mail? We assembled a panel of techies at high-powered firms to find out.

TALK: So, how often do you read other people's e-mail?

Ben: Every so often, when I'm setting up a notebook computer for somebody really important, I'll look just for fun. Once a woman asked me to help her with an e-mail attachment that happened to be her divorce papers. It was pretty cool. You'd be surprised by the number of people who never change their default password.

Sara: It just happens--you're given someone's computer and asked to open this or that, and all of a sudden you've got a director's dirty e-mail. But I've also worked with some shady people who read people's mail intentionally.

Do you ever track what sites people visit?

Ben: Yeah. I have the ability to monitor every action on a person's computer from my computer.

Max: We use a program that's been fed a list of inappropriate sites, and flags any time someone's on one of them, what computer they're using, and what floor they're on.

Tim: A couple of years back a bank got sued big time by a woman who saw porn on someone's computer. So the most we do is make sure things that are shared on the network are kosher and there's no porn.

So porn is big. What's the worst thing you've ever encountered?

Sara: The best thing I ever came across was at a bank. I was cleaning up someone's hard drive--somebody who was pretty high up, arrogant, demanding, and knew everything about computers--and his whole disk cache for the Internet was filled with obscene, disgusting, women-and-animals type stuff. Of course we all got together and had a good laugh.

Tim: Traders download porn all day, but it's an all-male environment on my floor, so nobody's really offended.

I hear you guys have the inside track on hirings and firings. Is that true?

Sara: At the New York Times Digital, I would know who was being fired before they did! They'd be brought into a meeting and someone would hand me a slip of paper saying, "Shut them down, delete their logins and their mail accounts!"

Ben: At one company I was sent around to log six different people off the network and lock their machines while they were at lunch. When they got back they went straight into a meeting and were all fired simultaneously. I hated being in the middle of that.

Do you ever purposely make things more difficult for people?

Ben: Oh, yeah. We have two utility programs to fix hard drives: one that fixes things in about five minutes, and one that fixes things in 45 minutes. On occasion I've just said, "Screw it, I don't like this person," and stuck them with the latter.

Sara: Absolutely! People who just can't keep their mouths shut or be polite? You just say, "Oh, I don't have the right disk, I'll come back later" ...when you're gone!

Do you think the average employee takes you for granted?

Sara: Absolutely. You get so much abuse. People scream and hurl every sort of insult. They think that because I do tech support I've gone to DeVry or something.

Ben: But when we go on vacation for two weeks people remember how much easier things are when we're there. They occasionally need a reminder not to make trouble.

Do you think IT people have a rep for being difficult?

Ben: It comes with the territory. A lot of these guys are nerdy guys who haven't really gotten past the whole schoolyard thing.

Sara: There's an element of that, certainly. But I say the bigger the nerds the better! It's a strange bias.

Any advice for the clueless masses?

Sara: Yeah, don't judge a book by its cover. And be nice. Being nice gets you everything.

(Names and some identifying details have been changed.)

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