jindc wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't get caught, but I felt terrible after I snooped because I discovered I made so much less than the males in the office. I was really angry for a long time. Still at the job, though. Sigh.

Same here - it isn't secret here (fed agency), but knowing how much less I make than people who've never been to college but are male? While I have a masters degree and direct experience to what this job requires? Yeah, it makes me real motivated to work harder.

knowing is a double edged sword. a very sharp one.

Still, I would rather know the information and be angry (and choose to do or not to do anything with it) than being kept in the dark box.

Anonymous wrote:I didn't get caught, but I felt terrible after I snooped because I discovered I made so much less than the males in the office. I was really angry for a long time. Still at the job, though. Sigh.

Same here - it isn't secret here (fed agency), but knowing how much less I make than people who've never been to college but are male? While I have a masters degree and direct experience to what this job requires? Yeah, it makes me real motivated to work harder.

knowing is a double edged sword. a very sharp one.

I worked for a company that had this kind of information stored on a server that all of the standard forms were on. I was poking around and found a file that contained everyone's income information, insurance options, even about who was paying child support (garnished wages).

I reported this to my immediate supervisor who said to me, "that's not cool" and he went to the boss and said that I had "cracked a code" to gain access to this information. Nothing was password protected, so he was full of shit.

I was called into a meeting with the boss and an HR puppet. I told them what I saw, how I happened to see it and that I told my supervisor. I was told to forget about it.

The next morning I showed up and I got fired. They believed my supervisor's story about me "cracking a code" on an unprotected file. I was told, "this is the kind of information that can bring an organization to its knees" and that they would have to let me go.

I contacted a lawyer and I was told that it would cost me tens of thousands of dollars to go after them. I just sucked it up and moved on. That's the only time I have ever been fired from a job.

If I ever win the lottery I am going to make a few people wish that they never fucked with me!

If he is just a work friend then I wouldn't say anything. If you guys get together with your families or do out of work stuff then I would mention it in the way PP's suggested.

Hey, who doesn't want to know what their colleagues are making? If you want to clear the air with him, you could just explain that you're interested in knowing your salary potential and look to him as a successful example at the company. Depending on how good friends you are, this might be the approach that makes you feel best.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not getting fired. It was just an embarrassing moment. Like I said, the guy is a friend. So now he knows I'm nosey.

We chatted like normal the rest of the day and he didn't mention it. I'm hoping in a week or so we'll both forget about it.

And he's on my level, not management. Just been here longer.

Avoidance is juvenile to me and would make me think you found nothing wrong with what you did. If he's a friend, I'd probably say "Sorry about the other day. I was curious about my potential here, but probably should've asked you instead".

I'm not getting fired. It was just an embarrassing moment. Like I said, the guy is a friend. So now he knows I'm nosey.

We chatted like normal the rest of the day and he didn't mention it. I'm hoping in a week or so we'll both forget about it.

And he's on my level, not management. Just been here longer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't be surprised if you get fired. Even if you wouldn't have gotten caught those things are traceable. Good luck.

Ok guys! seriously. now you've got OP totally freaked out

she is not going to get fired, shut up. her manager might discuss it with her but fire her? no. and don't tell me I'm naïve. Its not OP's fault that the info was easily accessible, its not like she broke through a firewall to get the info or stole passwords! maybe her organization should be more careful and maybe OP should sue because that means that HER salary info is also public. Hmmm???

People have been fired for less.

Just because you CAN do something, it doesn't mean you should. Op said she was supposed to be doing something else but she wandered into another section.

Guess what if I leave the petty cash box open and on the table, that doesn't mean you can grab what you like and then complain that the box should have been locked up.

I hope OP does NOT get fired but I wouldn't bat an eye if she did.

DH runs a large organization - he took it over about 9 months ago; During a department audit, he found out that one of his staff members has regular access to everyone's salary info including his, and that she regularly accessed it for project management purposes.....and probably for nosey reasons too. Instead of being a total dick about it, he simply made that info "no longer accessible" by anyone but him and HR. Problem solved. Firing her would have been stupid. its not her fault that someone was stupid enough to give her that access to begin with!

Anonymous wrote:Don't be surprised if you get fired. Even if you wouldn't have gotten caught those things are traceable. Good luck.

Ok guys! seriously. now you've got OP totally freaked out

she is not going to get fired, shut up. her manager might discuss it with her but fire her? no. and don't tell me I'm naïve. Its not OP's fault that the info was easily accessible, its not like she broke through a firewall to get the info or stole passwords! maybe her organization should be more careful and maybe OP should sue because that means that HER salary info is also public. Hmmm???