They gave me a computer, a manual thicker than the yellow pages and no instructions. What could possibly go wrong??

I was reminiscing the other day with an old colleague and laughing through our exploits during our newspaper days and one of the stories that came up was when we went computerised.

I worked in the circulation department of a national newspaper company back in the 80’s and after a couple of years on nights, eventually joined the day staff where there were about 12-14 of us in the department. One of the duties was taking revisions to supply orders from the wholesalers….and these were recorded in old fashioned style ledgers. These “books” were huge, approx. 2ft x 2ft …think “Dickensian” style.

Anyway…one day we came in and there on each person’s desk was a computer monitor and keyboard and in the middle of the desks was a thick manual. So now we were to enter the new supplies and revisions for the wholesalers into a computer….oh the fun. However after a full 10 minutes of training, all grouped around one computer we were fully trained and knowledgeable and if we got stuck, there was a manual in the middle of the desks we could use to check. This manual was so thick, it was ridiculous and no-one could find the correct answers anyway, so we stumbled through.

I’ve always been curious, so naturally I couldn’t help but flick through the manual and on doing so came across several pages of “commands” at the back. You know the type “Ctrl Alt Del” or whatever….so I decided to experiment during the day and discover what they did….and that’s where the problem started.

I stumbled across a command that gave me access to view individual logins (including passwords) across the whole company. I could see when people logged into their PC in all the different departments….from HR, payroll to purchase ledger. I laughed about it with a couple of colleagues (one was my FOC/Union rep) and with us all being a little naïve never really thought we were doing anything wrong. I hadn’t actually tried to login as someone else, until one day when one of my colleagues (actually the union rep!!) came over and wondered if it was possible to see what someone earned in a different department as he was thinking of applying to transfer to that department.

We tried it out, he gave me a name of someone in that department and there displayed on the screen was his earnings….over the last 6 or 7 weeks. This convinced my colleague to apply for the transfer. But…now we knew we could actually access specific info if we wanted, but still not really thinking of any possible consequences.

Apart from having a nosy at one thing and another over the next couple of weeks…. We kind of left it, until I was covering a late Saturday night shift ….and another colleagued phoned me.

At the time we were going through a process of voluntary redundancy…. And though it wasn’t expected we would lose many people, you could apply for a quote on what you would receive. Of course there were rumours and speculation, so many wouldn’t request a quote as they thought this would mean they would then be made redundant (like I said we were a little naïve).

So, the phone call late Saturday night and my friend was wondering If I could see what he would get if he took redundancy. “Let’s have a look”…and so after using several different logins, I eventually found the right one and was able to get the redundancy information on screen

What I didn’t know was that upon pulling that information on the screen, it also automatically generated a printout in the relevant department!!

So Monday morning came along and I’d been working for around an hour when I get a phone call from my union rep…. “What the F~~~ have you been doing?”. I was a little bemused however we met for a coffee in the canteen and he explained that I had been summoned to be in front of the MD, the FD and the IT Director along with the Circulation Director (my boss) later that afternoon.

We guessed it was about my computer prowess,,,and so I was advised to deny everything, “Let’s see what they know” he told me. And…that’s exactly what I did…denied everything despite being confronted with the knowledge of the redundancy printout, the exact PC and department the request had come from, the time the request had been made, the different logins I had tried. The evidence was overwhelming, but still I denied it. It was then that we had a break and was told to consider my position.

During this break, my union rep who had been with me and full of (not so great) advice, now said “you need to come clean…..there’s no denying it was you”. Apart from one other colleague who was with me working that Saturday and it was obvious it hadn’t been him…I was snookered.

On retuning to the meeting where the Directors had been discussing various aspects, The FD had wanted to call the police as he felt I could have changed or amended important information. I assured them I hadn’t and had only ever looked at info on screen. He then was concerned about how I had got the logins and passwords, had someone given them to me, had I pinched them from somewhere and written them down. No, I had just remembered what I saw on the PC. He wasn’t convinced at all…and so my boss came to my corner, Explained how I was curious, had learnt every job within the office and covered for everyone when they were on holiday…..oh and that I had a good memory.

To check this…they then had me recite various different logins and passwords. I think what impressed them then was that I could recite every single one and bearing in mind some of the passwords were not proper words but alphanumerical and at least one was 19 characters long.

Finally, they sent me home with instructions to come in the next morning and not speak to anyone and a final decision would be made, though I got the impression it wasn’t going to be too bad…and possibly just a written warning.

The next day I arrived in the office….kept myself to myself and didn’t even touch the computer. Moments later the MD, FD and the IT Director arrived in our office, came over to me and asked me to show them how I had seen logins and passwords. I tapped a few keys, showed them the command that was in the manual….and they watched the screen.

After a few seconds….up came someone logging into their computer….and just by luck it was someone in “Personnel” (as it was called back then). After a second person logged into their computer, they all stood back, looked at the IT Director and shook their heads. I’d proved my point…and off they all went. Shortly after the IT guys came round and went one by one to each PC and inserted some security onto it, while we all had to stand with our back to them. In fact they had to go round the whole company checking each and every PC.

Later that afternoon I was called in to see my Circulation Director, who then informed me that they felt (regretfully) a written warning had to be issued and that it would be on my record for a year. OK….that’s not too bad. However following this, I was then offered a job (which included a pay rise and all relocation costs paid for) within the main IT function based in Bath.

I did turn the job offer down, however my notoriety for what I had done became well known throughout both the Manchester and London offices. Of course the stories that went round were slightly exaggerated, but I must say my credibility went shooting up and did me know end of good. So what could have been my downfall, actually served me well with my colleagues and actually with some of the Directors, though it was a long time before the FD actually spoke to me again.