Privacy in the workplace

[Ron Torrella]

On Wed, 16 Sep 1998, michael wathen wrote:

> My immediate supervisor, the head technician here, is Eric Wolfley, Rpt.
> He was hired here to take the place of Rolf von Walthausen.  Rolf had
> been in that position for nearly 15 years.  I have worked for fifteen
> years also and had applied for Rolf's job but instead Eric got it.  Eric
> had applied for the job thinking that I would get the head position and
> he would take my job as I moved up. 

Ouch. I was in a very similar situation at U of Ill., only I raised a
little hell with the Director and got him to mend his ways. (He quickly
resigned the year I packed up and left for MI, btw.)

> Well needless to say the head of the piano dept. and the Assistant Dean
> in charge of password procurement and compliance decided that Eric's
> three piece suit (it was also about 15 years old) looked better than the
> one I wore. 

Can't believe *anyone* would look good in the same suit for that long.
Must not have seen much daylight in that time!

> I think they felt that a new person would be more likely to be one which
> could be fashioned into a good employee beholden to the powers.  As it
> turns out Eric defended my position in several lengthy conversations. 
> What these administrators and department heads don't realize is that
> piano technicians are by their very nature independent, self motivated,
> and smart people. 

Really?

> So as far as I know only Eric and I have protested. The rest of her
> subjects don't want to rock the boat. 

Makes one wonder about the integrity of those other subjects....

> Eric has come to a short term solution.  We will place our user names as
> well as our passwords in a sealed envelope that is to only be opened
> only in an emergency and kept in a safe.  Meanwhile I am waiting for a
> reply from the University's Ombudswoman's office about how to deal with
> this grievance.  I am also planning to contact the the computing systems
> administrator.  I will keep you informed. 

I hope you took the liberty of exercising your right to change the
password before the ink dried on that piece of paper!

> For sure I will have some other type of email service as soon as I get
> around to it.  I can get free email service from a variety of services
> such as Netscape WebMail.  But I think I will prefer something like
> michael.wathen@wapin.com! 

Or Michael@wathen.com .... in case the wapin thing doesn't work out or you
get bought out by a big-time piano manufacturer.

Loved the shameless advertisement at the end of your post!

Ron Torrella, RPT
Piano Technician
University of Michigan
School of Music