"Big Brother" Fraternity

"The management of the company holds fast to its functions mainly thanks to close mutual connections and thanks to the dictates of absurd internal regulations, the daily observance of which is one of the basic duties of subordinate employees. Censorship runs at full speed, the opportunity to have one's own opinion is limited, unsympathetic statements are usually punished by dismissal. Unreserved obedience is duly rewarded, and those who prove themselves in this process are entrusted by the company's internal system with overseeing the observance of the established order."

Welcome to an Orwellian fictional society ruled by his majesty "Big Brother".

So much for the introduction to today's post, which will describe the events at Radio ГA / ГA that happened more than four years ago.

It was February 2020 and the hitherto unknown droplet virus, named by the "anointed heads" worldwide as Covid-19, was beginning to choose its first human victims in societies. There are still scientific disputes about its origin and exact consequences, and their spreaders are, as is customary today, appropriately labeled and defamed.

In contrast to these tragic events, which were then beginning to fill the pages of the local and foreign media, four months earlier, and in complete silence, a group of "bad guys" appeared in the internal computer network of Radio ГА / ГА. Their origin and goals were clear to everyone in this company from the beginning of the investigation - it was a sloppy company from overseas after all!

In both of these cases, established political dances were used to eradicate evil.

While in the case of the first "case" this political trickle lasted and continues with varying intensity, cast and rhythm until now, in the second political part the "odzemok" danced basically according to the color of the passports. The dark blue world, always presenting the only correct styles of music and ready to feed them daily to the ears of musical illiterates, it was contrasted with a bunch of capable useful idiots, proudly advocating shades of dark red shorts, ready to greedily help them harden up at any hint of musical cacophony music.

Clash or symbiosis of worlds?

I will describe in events how they happened the other day.

Firing according to the §52 of the Labor Code without discussion with the trade union gave me, in my naivety at the time, quite a decent hope that Radio ГA / ГA would not want to pay a hefty fine of up to 2 million crowns based on the findings of the "Labor Inspectorate" and would rather come to an agreement with me according to the well-known "what we are - we are". My parent trade union also gave me some hope, which boasted on its public website about its membership in the "Trade Union of State Bodies and Organizations", in the "Czecho-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions" and the unquestionably promised legal consultation of the local trade union legal elites.

I also appreciated the fact that during negotiations with the local "top" managemnt, consisting of #LA ("Dr. Leklá Andělka"), #MS ("Mr. Sushi") and #JS ("Joints Smoker) in February 2020, it fully built . And all this just a few days after I discovered on 17/02/2020 the attempt of my supervisor #RC ("Remotely Controlled") to play "Big Brother" role against me.

You can find more about this case here .

In the meantime, a lot of water has been lost in the local river, and the lukewarm police investigation into the criminal charges against my supervisor for attacking my work computer and stealing my identity, as well as my ex-employer's impersonation of both of my lawsuits, led me to believe at the time that it was in time to involve another institution - this time "State Office of Labor Inspection" in the battle against crystal clear practices in Radio ГA / ГA.

Who else should have the patent to judge whether there is something impure floating in that pure wine of theirs?

Before that, however, we tried to contact Radio ГA / ГA again with its trade union. We assumed that the trade union should be the active component that turns to the labor inspectorate first. After all, it is theb one and only who ensures compliance with the "Labor Code" at the workplace and prioritizes the interests of her members and employees against the will of employers. We also assumed that we would subsequently join their initiative. And this regardless of the fact that in June 2021 I had not been a member of them for more than a year.

The events that followed only confirmed my years-old belief that the "Association of Gardeners in Horní Dolní" has more power than any trade union even in the largest corporation.

At one of the committee's meetings, a certain member of the committee suggested to the union president that she should not seek happiness for the sake of others. That they will be there even after I'm fired and that it could happen that they end up like me. The truth of his words that Radio ГA / ГA has no problem "kicking out" a member of the trade union committee was soon demonstrated. And that, as it is known from trade union practice, it is really riding on a very thin ice!

Evil tongues claim that this "barter" with the highest in the local food chain caused the unblocking of negotiations on the frozen wages of Czech employees. Of course, in the spirit of the purest years of proven traditions "something for something". But I don't know about that because I didn't tell them about it. I also didn't witness the hastily convened "meeting session" between him and "his" trade union after the inspectorate unexpectedly slammed his "Hagiborian" door.

And so in the end we were left alone again.

I remember that endless UBER trip through Prague, when the driver, knowing only a few bare Czech sentences with a strong Russian accent, took us to the arranged meeting with "our" inspector in Veleslavín. The driver in a matching ADIDOS brand tracksuit stubbornly insisted on the route offered to him by his brand new "TAMTUNG" mobile phone in GOOGLE maps and stubbornly refused the shortcuts recommended by me, as a native living here for several decades. After several apologies to the inspector for our delay, which was not our fault, we finally met in a small meeting room at the entrance of the inspectorate.

We thus gained the first minus points in advance and again through no fault of our own.

In order for this meeting to take place at all, we first had to carefully document our evidence of my former employer's wrongdoing, and most importantly, file a motion in time.

I will not repeat from this link all the details that such a submission must contain. However, it is important to draw attention to an important fact, namely that "the ice begins to move" only after a certain period of time, which the inspector respectfully pointed out to us in advance. In the spirit of the well-known proverb "about slugs and cabbage", it is said that there are many similar submissions and only a few inspectors. Perhaps he was monitoring that we would change our mind in time, and so another snail devotes himself to another cabbage.

And so, almost a year passed, and we were informed via a data box message about the result of the inspection.

Here, however, it would be appropriate to spend a few words on that initiative and the events that preceded it. So I will focus only on the main points of my initiative and will also supplement them with excerpts from the labor inspectorate's response from the report on the results of the inspection.

Signs of bullying and bossing by my former supervisor #RC ("Remotely Controlled"), consisting of assigning meaningless tasks, not managing me, hindering my professional growth, ignoring my recommendations, treating me unequally due to my age and later in tracking my activities on the internal network.

The manner and form of delivery of the notice, when it was delivered during my long-term illness caused by increasing psychological pressure from #MS ("Mr. Sushi") to take it over, delivered to the apartment in an open form by an unknown person and under the pretext of a police visit.

Probably the most serious violation is the administrative offense according to §61, paragraph 1 of the "Labor Code" for not discussing the dismissal with the trade union, for which the organization faces a fine of up to 2,000,000 CZK from 1 January 2015.

Identity theft by my superiors #RC ("Remotely Controlled"), breaching privacy and security on my work computer, posing on the internal network and the internet with my identity.

Performance of the O365 global administrator function in conflict with the original Lotus Domino/Notes administrator job description, without this new activity being specified in the job description in the new employment contract.

So I should be satisfied with a narrow 3:2 win, one would say.

I was not.

We kept this step in reserve until the last moment and did not expect that Radio ГA / ГA would let it go this far. Did those moral beacons really think that if their union didn't take the initiative, I wouldn't dare to do it myself? I knew from previous jobs that arguing with the "Labor Inspectorate" is something that no company looks forward to and tries to avoid this internal investigation of theirs until the last moment.

Probably their moral values and the reputation of the company that all those useful idiots represented in this dispute are as distant as parallels in their efforts.

The problem of Anglo-Saxon companies in our meadows and groves is, in my opinion, their management.

With a few exceptions, these are managerial waste from their mothers, who, thanks to various advantages ("housing", bonuses, tax breaks, managerial clauses, benefits from "passport color", relations with politicians, their ties to embassies, ... ) scheming with each other and protecting their well-deserved "dream job". Even if many of them, often after their managerial failure or as a result of "collaborative relations at the workplace", have to leave their precious chair with a tear in their eye, they usually justify that tear in their eye by their sadness for their family. It is therefore not surprising that at the first opportunity, after such a door kick, they return within a few months improved through the window. After all, as I mentioned this phenomenon in one of the previous posts "How to become persona non grata" .

But where is the main point of this post of mine?

Imagine that you have been working in such a fictitious company in the Czech Republic since you finished high school or university, and you have been building your place in the same company for more than 20 years. Let's give this company a name - let that company be Radio ГA / ГA, for example, and let it be the long-time striver - #RC ("Remotely Controlled").

He builds his position "from the ground up" - first as a member of IT support aka "motor mouse", then head of this department, and finally as IT director. Meanwhile, the local IT pond thickens, redistributes, and the all-powerful tadpole begins to be threatened by some omnipresent shark fry. The protection of senior colleagues of the same tribe is no longer enough, and suddenly it is indicated to him from the higher floors of the building that the brown colour of his nose is not dark enough. And that it is insufficiently expressed.

Here, too, he comes up with an idea on how to save paper costs in printers. Everything will be printed on both sides of the paper! How simple! But in a media company such as Radio ГА / ГА, where contributions to the camera are read live from such printed papers, this his idea did not meet with much understanding. Let's face it - it was more of a mess. Other ideas soon followed. How about compulsorily turning off "computers" in an effort to save a few cents on energy? Even this well-intentioned effort to save money ended up in a misunderstanding for the company that broadcasts 24/7. And there was another idea. Don't you think there are too many addresses in the address book? Let's reduce their number! At least by 30%! How brilliant! A million dollar idea and no one will notice, right? Other fruitful ideas, unfortunately with a similar result, without appreciation soon followed.

And so the revolutionary year 2014 arrives and new unknown faces appear in the local waters, from whom it is not known in advance what can be expected from them. With each new president comes new managers, advisers, from these advisers and managers other managers and advisers, other new superiors and their superiors, and his waters are becoming incredibly tight. New technologies are coming and the politics of the "new era" are spreading to the information technology area of his directorate. A long-standing village turns into a tough fight for survival, where every ally counts and where the biggest advantage is the advantage of owning information. His IT becomes a blessing to him.

Unfortunately, he had another new superior in the hierarchy and horizontally another new competitor #JS ("Joints Smoker"), whom his new superior "outranked" here. Damage. He had been thinking about the position of IT security director for a long time. That would be the right position for him, which would correspond to his qualities. He always dreamed about this newly created feature when he fell asleep. Who has security, has influence and insight - about everything, as is known!

Oh yeah, how could he failed, he thought…

But not all days are over, he comforted himself. It's already Friday!

The key is not to leave a computer trail , has now become his daily mantra.

Another principle was that important decisions are not sent by email . If it is really necessary, then give orders only verbally, in the door of your office, preferably without witnesses and right in the ear. Or hand them over in the form of a name or bare sentences on a piece of paper with instructions - shred after reading, or preferably eat. On the contrary, very important orders must be sent in a copy with several recipients. And such important e-mails are generally sent with a read receipt, and above all, all these receipts must be archived in special folders.

Emails, emails, emails…

Emails have become a strategic weapon! Don't you have an email? You have no proof! The unwritten rule of all fish here. And above all to desecrate and ridicule the competitor - preferably in something for which they are stretching him here. To begin with, we will start - for example, in IT security.

Computer security is a very strange discipline.

It requires strong and responsible personalities, elaborate internal rules, unreserved support from the company's management, and finally everyone's awareness. You will never build it with the help of "yesmen", with rules that are bypassed without consequences, where IT security leadership is full of "equals" and "equals", and where the awareness of the individual is a manifestation of his weakness and a reason for his ridicule.

I wrote about each of these violations in one of the previous posts.

Know about everything that happens on the internal network, who visits certain websites, where and for how long, how many and what "movies" they have on the shared drives, which application they most often run, and which emails are sent from whom to whom. This is all legitimate fraternity behavior. It's worse if this information is used for gain. It doesn't matter if it's about obtaining evidence for firing, for blackmail, or for influencing.

When, at the end of 2019, his career world, which had been built for many years, was collapsing and an in-depth analysis by forensic specialists from behind the big puddle named the wrongdoings (all) involved in the recently discovered hacker attack on the mailboxes of his superiors, he once again demonstrated his managerial responsibility in an exemplary manner. He found the only culprit, named him and, thanks to the possibilities given to him by the system, created a legend and, at the end, his singing "papapa" song.

Now, all those anus alpinistic feats at #KF ("Kristína Fšetko") have finally paid off for him, who in the end, in terms of organizational components, officially dedicated everything to him without unnecessary talk.

Then it was just painting "crystal clear".

For these needs, he had technical equipment, special types of licenses, functional status and most importantly – a strong stomach. So it started by reading the contents of the suspicious mailbox of certain users. And again - even though he had the appropriate access rights to do so, he let others sniff. He always had his people to do the dirty work for him.

He was simply the darling of the team.

Over time, and with this method of investigation, his "fun club" of devotees began to dwindle. Some took the risk and told him they didn't feel up to it. Others, with the excuse of undergoing a sudden lobotomy, have forgotten everything and that they can no longer do it. The very last ones suddenly "sick". And so the time came when it was necessary to fight "solo" in order to protect one's reputation. Really solo? Not.

Whereas until now his subordinates did the dirty work because they had to, now the "useful idiots" got involved because they wanted to.

#KF ("Kristína Fšetko") unusually signed the necessary notice at the end of January 2020 and gave the whole event the right official stamp. #MS (“Mr. Sushi”) has secured a building ban and employer obstruction since December 2019. That's just so that someone doesn't surprise them "at work". #LA ("Dr. Leklá Andělka") activated the law office of #MV ("Mgr. Prasátko") in case the whole thing bursts, or if someone suddenly rebelled. And Mr. Clean #RC ("Remotely Controlled") had access to IT systems blocked at the end of 2019. This time for the peace of his work.

And so, with the new year 2020, lustrations and the search for additional evidence began. Time is running inexorably and there are only three weeks left until the dismissal according to the required section of the Labor Code. This is to screw the right paragraph on the person in question, after which everyone in previous cases ran away with a squeal.

It starts running powershell scripts over the clipboards and mines and extracts. So far, evidence is being sought only in the company mail, which foolishly evaluates that it is legal and that this can still be happen .

He grabs everything. He searches and searches, but cannot find a needle in a haystack.

In mid-February 2020, the situation gets complicated. Lawsuits are being threatened and there is still no further evidence. Moreover, it is implied by the accuser that he has evidence against him! Damn! He realizes that he may have underestimated his opponent. Is it starting to prepare for the fact that the opposing party could have available details from the investigation from the time when they were still friends in order to repair the damage? That would be really annoying. Such maneuvers and still no result!

He thought to himself - if he wants to go to trial, he probably won't communicate with the lawyer from the company email, especially since he blocked his access to it, right? Besides, he couldn't find anything in his mail anyway. The only option left is to look into his private mail on one of the public mail servers. What is this address? Clear! We all communicated with him during the course of the investigation and he has it carefully stored in his sent mail folder. In a safe place of course. In his archive.

And so on January 30, 2020, by virtue of his position , he orders one of the last willing to give him access to the plaintiff's company computer . He has a name, now he knows the password, and thus he has his identity now.

The computer track is over. Now who can prove to him that the prosecutor himself was not on that computer? Now he also has a private mail at his disposal, and since the plaintiff does not know this, it mainly makes his legal representation and excited management happy. All they know everything in advance now.

Finally a hero with the right shade of brown definitely!

The advantage of "being informed in advance" collapsed like a house of cards on 2/17/2020. It took during one unplanned visit to the Radio ГА / ГA office and logging into the company computer after resetting the password. This was followed by the filing of a criminal complaint against him, the interruption of negotiations on an out-of-court settlement in both filed lawsuits, and ended with him fleeing with his entire family home to US. Simply somewhere where, as the investigator noted, no one here has yet been able to succeed in extradition.

So what is the takeaway from this post?

It makes me think of the jug and going to fetch water. Definitely very apt in this story!

In any case, point 4 of the conclusion of the report of the "Labor Inspectorate" from the protocol of the investigation of my submission and listed here a few pages above, should be a lesson. It is well known that the employer can do whatever he wants with the company computer and you are only its users. I was surprised that we encountered this opinion even when dealing with police investigators when filing my criminal complaint on #RC ("Remotely Controlled").

The world just wants to be deceived.

From my subsequent experience after my "exit" from Radio ГA / ГA, I can personally and with full seriousness and joy confirm that not all companies are broken in this way.

Fortunately, there are also companies where they will not allow themselves to abuse your personal rights without a serious reason, and especially not without your consent.

As one of the former members of the "Big Brother fraternity", I will believe that there are a majority of such companies. And trust me - I know what I'm talking about.

"Big Brother" Fraternity

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