What you should do now, stuffin, is observe the behavior of the VP. If he behaves differently towards you after the incident, talk with him and ask him why.
From time to time, my supervisor walks in casually to my office at work to use my computer workstation using his password. He then has access to any one of my 600 files, work and personal. But he is just there during lunch to play the extra games I managed to download before the MIS crackdown. Though this is still annoying, unfortunately, I can’t do anything about that. Policy states that he as a supervisor can do this.
It seems a quirk in the law that you are entitled to much more privacy when you use the phone than when you use a computer. My guess is that for private email and such the best thing is have your own laptop and dial out.
I have a slightly different question:
How well do you trust the IT guy? Perhaps nothing happened at all, and the IT guy is trying to anger you into taking some foolish action. OR, perhaps the scan was done by the IT guy and he wants to cover his tracks while getting you to do something foolish.
I have no idea what really happened, but there are still a lot of holes in the info you’ve supplied so far. (Not that you are leaving anything out, but there is not enough info for me to reach a conclusion.) Unless you and the marketing type have bad blood between you, why would he be interested in scanning your files?
Id talk to the boss, unless you are the boss. Say that it ‘appears’ [as in alleged] someone has been looking at your files & askhim if thats okay or not.
tomndebb the IT and I get along really well. Also, because of the timing of the incident, he can be effectively ruled out (it occurred at night, there are a limited number of people who can get in).
capacitor funny you should mention that. He’s been acting funny this morning. Not in a bad way, but like he’s trying to get on my good side. I suspect the CEO spoke to him last night.
FWIW, the IT and I are writing up a policy today as it relates to work computers. He doesn’t see the need for a really anal policy and I agree. This is a company where everone knows each other and is more or less relaxed. We don’t want to inspire feelings of ill will. I’ll probably post it when we’re done if you’re interested.
absoulI thought about the web cam thing, I haven’t decided to check it out yet, it seems sneaky, and too much like the behavior Im upset about. I do like the laptop suggestion though.
stuffinb:
Sounds like you handled it right. All’s well that ends well.
If the head of one department is trying to dig up dirt on the head of another department, then it sounds like you all play some real hardball office politics there. Watch your back! (And stay on good terms with that IT guy!)
