Monitoring "Short-Timers" 2

[JillofAllTrades]

I was just given a heads-up about a small layoff that will occur in my company. The 5 or 6 affected employees will be allowed to stay for two weeks in addition to getting severance. I am asked to monitor heavily for any malicious activity. I have no idea what I am supposed to be looking for - everything shows up in logs when it is too late!

Any ideas before I succumb completely to panic mode?

Christine

 

[ousoonerjoe]

Tell HR they are insane and the request is impractical. Let them go now and add the 2 weeks to their severance. The down time to production that could occur is not worth the risk. If you have any personal information (Privacy Act or HIPPA) they can really cause you issues.

Make hourly backups of everything. I've been down this road before. It sucks. We would randomly Dameware into their PC just make sure they were doing what they were supposed to (Get manager AND HR approval before doing this). We only had to restore the Database twice and the file server once.

Good luck Christine. I hope the users are nice to you cause it can quickly turn into a worst case scenario.

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[MDXer]

The best way would have been to include in the severance contract a code of conduct for the remaining period. If this was done and done correctly you could have made a portion of the severance dependant on not violating the agreed to terms.

Paul
---------------------------------------
Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[ousoonerjoe]

One of the things we did learn, was to revoke all abilities to DELETE whether it be files or records. Any deletes had to be made by the supervisor/manager. that doesn't stop all of it, but does keep them from doing mass destruction in a single shot.

I would also save every email in and out of their mailboxes. You do not want them sending themselves private data. We blocked all messengers, mail.yahoo.com, msn.com, gmail.com, etc from those users for that reason (we also had HIPPA concerns).

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[SQLSister]

I believe the silly people who made such a risky decision for the company should be required to sit with these people for the time they are still there and watch their every move. An additonal two weeks severance pay is cheaper than rebuilding a system trashed by a disgruntled employee. If you need someone to do their tasks for the time period, hire temps.

Joe's idea about revoking all delete rights is a good one.

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[ChrisHunt]

An additonal two weeks severance pay is cheaper than rebuilding a system trashed by a disgruntled employee.

More to the point, it may well be cheaper than the cost of all the additional monitoring you need to do. Also, how much work are they realistically expecting to get out of these people anyway? They would be lucky to get anything from me in that situation.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[shoalcreek]

I was in this situation myself once. I was told that my contract would end, but they would give me almost three more weeks. I was rather shocked by the whole thing. Since I had been sent out there by a staffing company, I didn't do anything destructive. I didn't want to harm my relationship with the staffing agency.

It's been over a year since that happened. To be brutally honest, I wish I had done something destructive during my time there. What I did mostly during that time was surf the web. Perhaps, they were trying to maintain some type of good will with me.

I believe that if you are going to lay off somebody, you should lay them off immediately. If the employee believes that he or she has been wronged, then he may do something. Can you blame him? After all, the employee has not burned the bridge. Clearly the company has burned it.

 

[rosieb]

No! If you are laid off, you are paid to the end of the agreed time - you are therefore obliged to work, according to your contract, to the end of that time.

Any behaviour contrary to your contract is - and should be treated accordingly.

Any destructive behaviour is almost certainly illegal and should be treated as such.

Rosie
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." Richard Feynman

 

[KornGeek]

It's been over a year since that happened. To be brutally honest, I wish I had done something destructive during my time there. What I did mostly during that time was surf the web. Perhaps, they were trying to maintain some type of good will with me.

I believe that if you are going to lay off somebody, you should lay them off immediately. If the employee believes that he or she has been wronged, then he may do something. Can you blame him? After all, the employee has not burned the bridge. Clearly the company has burned it.

You wish you had done something destructive? Why? What possible purpose would that serve?

Can I blame an employee who takes action because he feels he's been wronged? If it's something unethical, then yes I can.

By your logic, if an employee quits, should the company try to ruin his life?

 

[shoalcreek]

I'm not here to debate the right and the wrong of what "short-timers" should do or should not do. My point was quite clear--if you lay off someone, you should do it immediately. If an employer is going to stab an employee in the back, then that employer should get the employee out the door as soon as possible.

Finally, employers should certainly consider the sad case of Pacific Southwest flight 1771 <

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSA_Flight_1771>.

This is what can happen when you fire an employee and don't seize his employee credentials.

 

[Stella740pl]

Oh, for goodness sake.
I was laid off once, got nice references from my manager and HR person, and found a better job - not the next day though, a few month later.

 

[ousoonerjoe]

Glad you're not a pilot, shoal

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[JillofAllTrades]

This isn't an evil nasty empire, it is a small company, struggling to keep afloat. They have to do something. I hope shoalcreek isn't secretly one of my coworkers!

Bottom line, I am doing aggressive monitoring and backing up and told my boss I will do the best I can to prevent or recover from malicious activity within the boundaries he has set up for me. Sigh. Friday is the day. Wish me and the displaced employees luck.

Christine

 

[shoalcreek]

I was laid off once, got nice references from my manager and HR person, and found a better job - not the next day though, a few month later.

Sometimes this does happen. I once had a legitimate layoff--the company was out of business within a year. But even in the case of legitimate layoffs, it's quite common for a company to misrepresent its financial status to job candidates. In the interview, they will say: "We're making a profit and are in great shape." A month later, they will say: "We're going out of business. Good-bye."

It also happens that companies will figure out a way to make every firing a layoff, so they can protect themselves from any negative fallout.

Back in 1998, I actually offered to finish some work for the company after the termination meeting. They politely told me that I couldn't do that. I politely walked out the door. Today in 2008, I would never make such an offer.

 

[KornGeek]

I agree that terminations should be immediate, except in rare circumstances (based off the individual and the company, the environment may exist to make it reasonable). The possibility of an angry employee causing harm, and the consequences of this are too great to risk. However, I fall short of condoning such activity on the part of the employee.

Employers should terminate employees immediately (think of it as giving them a head start on job hunting), but pay 2 weeks worth or more severance. Employees who choose to leave should give 2 weeks or more notice, and should prepare everything for their replacement. It's simple courtesy and good business.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

I have been part of companies who laid people off and did so immediately, helped you gather your stuff, and gave you two weeks pay (spookily efficient).

I have been part of companies that laid you off, but no one could absorb your workload, so they asked you to stick around and make sure your projects transition nicely (shitty planners).

I have been a part of companies that DON'T lay you off, but intercept you in the morning on your way to your desk and basically route you back out the door. They ship you any personal items from your office. They exercise "at will" employment and won't declare that you have been fired or laid off, just that you are no longer employed (Employment Department hates this almost as much as the employee).

I have been a part of companies that INFORM staff that they are hurting financially and rather than layoffs, they are encouraging anyone who is planning to retire to retire earlier for an additional bonus.

Some of this has even happened to me.

Different people do things differently and definitely it can depend on the size of the organization, their attitude toward employees, and the employee attitude.

Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[flapeyre]

Any company that gives advance notice of layoffs is taking an unnecessary risk. I've been laid off before (around noon). They wanted me to work through the end of the day, but I declined, and my first stop after lunch was an employment agency (from whom I got my present job of over 12 years).

And shoalcreek,

You actually wished you could do something destructive on the way out the door??

It's fortunate that the company wouldn't allow you to do so. You could be asking the Martha Stewart question ("Do these stripes make me look fat?")

Nullum gratuitum prandium.
--Sleipinir214

 

[shoalcreek]

I have been a part of companies that DON'T lay you off, but intercept you in the morning on your way to your desk and basically route you back out the door. They ship you any personal items from your office. They exercise "at will" employment and won't declare that you have been fired or laid off, just that you are no longer employed (Employment Department hates this almost as much as the employee).

I've only seen that stunt pulled once. I was pretty insistent about getting my personal items myself. I got them in about two minutes. It was fine if they wanted to stand over while I did it. Some people also say that the best way to terminate an employee is to take them to lunch.

Another guy once told me that he had happened to take his personal laptop to the office on the day he was terminated. He told them that if they didn't give him his laptop immediately, he was going to call the police.

Perhaps the moral of this story is simply: Don't take anything valuable to the office.

 

[sleipnir214]

I have been part of companies that laid you off, but no one could absorb your workload, so they asked you to stick around and make sure your projects transition nicely (shitty planners).

I quit one job after my paycheck bounced. Ten days after my old boss tells my lawyer that he simply can't pay me my back pay (much less the nice state-mandated multiples of my pay that my state allows as penalties), my boss calls me to ask me if I'd work on a project.

The moron told me he'd be willing to pay me under the table for the work. He actually got both his feelings hurt when I told him that I'd gladly do it -- for all my back pay, the penalties, reimbursement of lawyer's fees and the amount of the contract.


Want to ask the best questions? Read Eric S. Raymond's essay "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way". TANSTAAFL!

 

[Stella740pl]

"both his feelings hurt"?
I am intrigued. What are they?