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[Lyrian]

I wouldn't be too surprised if most any internet monitoring program used by larger companies could be alerted when specific sites are accessed. I'm sure as soon as you go to stuff like Amazon, eBay, etc. they could have it alert IT or whoever. At least if I was monitoring I'd want it to do something like that.

This happens quite often, actually. This practice is known as a "audit hook", where a specific predetermined activity (like visiting any website on a specific blacklist, or any website not on a specific whitelist) will immediately trigger notification of the IT manager to investigate the triggered alarm.

 

[kirblar]

Was it not? Sounds like there was enough GAF activity on average that the IT dude was able to convince the others, regardless of his motive.

Kinda sounds to me like OP may have been refreshing the forum a fair bit, in which case yeah....he fucked up, which he's admitted.

You don't get fired for what the OP was fired for under any normal circumstances. You don't have someone digging this up under normal circumstances.

It's a pretext- the IT guy was looking for anything he could use to justify axing him.

 

[Clockwork5]

Mobile GAF at work.

This is covered in day one of my introductory course: Not working at work 101

 

[Xis]

I work for a pretty big company. What would tip them off that an employee was doing something odd like that? You're talking about maybe thousands of employees here

Where I work, they used to have a publicly accessable site that listed the top 20 internet users and the site they visited most. If you are streaming a lot of video, someone in IT probably already knows about it, they just haven't cared to do anything about it.

They no longer do the publicly-visible shaming thing, but we did discover that they are now running keyloggers.

 

[OldMan]

Fuck 'em
-a neogaf post-

 

[Wilsongt]

My internet usage is monitored constantly because of the work I do. No gaf on the work computer. I don't need anyone to see green lines representing sound on my comp.

 

[davepoobond]

surprised you got fired with no warning unless you work for the CIA or some shit

 

[WedgeX]

That sucks.

This is why I browse exclusively from my phone at work. Lucky enough to have a data plan that will support it.

 

[JB1981]

Where I work, they used to have a publicly accessable site that listed the top 20 internet users and the site they visited most. If you are streaming a lot of video, someone in IT probably already knows about it, they just haven't cared to do anything about it.

Haha omg I'm so fucked. I used to be able to browse GAF but it was blocked about 8 months ago

 

[Cracklox]

* Reads Op *

- Minimizes Gaf window to go do some actual work -

Spoiler

I have been warned about this before

 

[Ranmo]

I'd have it openly full screened on my second monitor. That's how lax it was.

 

[Windu]

sounds like they lost a good employee. their loss. you'll find something better soon.

 

[riotous]

You don't get fired for what the OP was fired for under any normal circumstances. You don't have someone digging this up under normal circumstances.

It's a pretext- the IT guy was looking for anything he could use to justify axing him.

None of this is really true; while it's possible some IT guy who somehow curries tons of favor with HR/management had a vendetta.. you can certainly get fired for and caught excessively browsing non-work websites without anyone having a vendetta.

I've seen it both companies small and large; from someone I knew getting fired at a 35 person company to knowing that at an 160,000+ employee company they regularly looked at "most visited site" logs.

 

[Socreges]

You don't get fired for what the OP was fired for under any normal circumstances. You don't have someone digging this up under normal circumstances.

It's a pretext- the IT guy was looking for anything he could use to justify axing him.

Yes, pretext. Motive. But ultimately they chose to fire him.

Unless I'm mistaken and OP was fired straight up by the head of IT.

 

[Quazar]

I work right next to IT Monitoring. Sometimes I hear them talking about what people are doing. For instance, I heard them talking about Pokemon go usage. But they don't do it out of malice, just pure curiousity from the sounds of their laughter. They seem to be more busy with network traffic on infrastructure then anything. And badge reports.

 

[BearPawB]

Gaf is my job

 

[Harpuia]

From my experience, a person doesn't get fired unless someone is disliked enough, or someone decides that they simply hate you. Sorry about the shitty work environment man. Takes one person to ruin a nice place. :/

Though I do agree with some posters here. Maybe it is unwise to post about getting fired for being on GAF...on GAF? Just lookin out for you bro.

 

[Septimus Prime]

One day I might tell the story about how NeoGAF destroyed my relationship.

You took GAF's relationship advice, didn't you?

"Hey GAF, I have a question about my relationship. My partner was in a bad mood today; what should I do?"
"He's cheating. Break up with him."

 

[Ranmo]

From my experience, a person doesn't get fired unless someone is disliked enough, or someone decides that they simply hate you. Sorry about the shitty work environment man. Takes one person to ruin a nice place. :/

Though I do agree with some posters here. Maybe it is unwise to post about getting fired for being on GAF...on GAF? Just lookin out for you bro.

In that case can we just get this thread removed or something?
I just wanted to vent and have some type of PSA for others so that this doesn't happen to them.

I mean no ill will to the company. Which is why I have been strictly vague on a lot of things. This is for the people, not for my own personal gain.

 

[riotous]

Also, the thing about forums is you'll end up loading content from tons of different sites.

So things like imgur.com and random gaming sites end up in the logs because of all of the image tags on any given page load.

Which can be true of any web site, but it's particularly true on a forum.. especially one where .gifs are so popular.

Turn off avatars, turn off images.. and if you want to be really strict, use an adblock program that allows you to filter all images.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Give the man a tag at least.

 

[kirblar]

Yes, pretext. Motive. But ultimately they chose to fire him.

Unless I'm mistaken and OP was fired straight up by the head of IT.

This person who had access to my history used my Neogaf pings as an excuse to help get me let go.

That's effectively what happened. The guy wanted him gone, found something he could use against the OP, and made it happen.

 

[The Omega Man]

If you have a personal vpn can you mask your network activity trough that?

 

[riotous]

That's effectively what happened. The guy wanted him gone, found something he could use against the OP, and made it happen.

I'm pretty sure that's OP's theory. I doubt they told him "the IT guy wanted you gone."

 

[LyleLanley]

My boss asked me what NeoGAF was once. I told him that it was what I looked at rather than looking up memes, which is what my other co-workers do.

Way to rat out everyone else.

 

[GameAddict411]

I wouldn't use corporate internet access for my personal use. Next time stick to using your phone.

 

[ameratsu]

None of this is really true; while it's possible some IT guy who somehow curries tons of favor with HR/management had a vendetta.. you can certainly get fired for and caught excessively browsing non-work websites without anyone having a vendetta.

I've seen it both companies small and large; from someone I knew getting fired at a 35 person company to knowing that at an 160,000+ employee company they regularly looked at "most visited site" logs.

What's the purpose of this level of micromanagement? If your employees are fucking around on gaf but still able to complete their duties, who cares?

 

[icespide]

OP, last year I had an intense meeting and talking to from my boss's boss about browsing neogaf and was put on watch. I already was pretty meh on the job and this just put me into a downward spiral of not giving a fuck.

I eventually quit and now I have my dream job as an engineer at Apple. I'm sure something much better will come around for you

 

[Akim]

I wouldn't use corporate internet access for my personal use. Next time stick to using your phone.

Jeez I wouldn't want to work wherever you and OP work. Who cares what you do as long as you do your work and are doing a good job?

 

[kirblar]

I'm pretty sure that's OP's theory. I doubt they told him "the IT guy wanted you gone."

I'm pretty sure the OP knows more about what happened than you or I do.

Just-world fallacy is a hell of a thing. If your immediate reaction to hearing something like this is "I don't believe him, he probably deserved it", you should really think about why you're jumping to that response.

 

[tokkun]

Way to rat out everyone else.

People looking at memes at work is no secret. They promoted it at my employee orientation.

 

[riotous]

I'm pretty sure the OP knows more about what happened than you or I do.

And it's pretty clear it's a conspiracy theory he's presenting.

Just-world fallacy is a hell of a thing. If your immediate reaction to hearing something like this is "I don't believe him, he probably deserved it", you should really think about why you're jumping to that response.

I didn't say that at all... lol talking about jumping to a response.

It's pretty clear the OP doesn't actually know for a fact that's what happened; he can speak for himself, but it would be pretty odd for him to actually be told that someone had it out for him, why they had it out for him, and that the only reason he was fired was because the IT guy wanted it.

It's not that I don't believe him; it's that there's probably no way for him to know for sure.. certainly no way for you to know for sure so that you can response "that's effectively what happened."

 

[ATXAlchemy]

Man, what a shitass office politics.

Serious question OP. Aside from the whole "wanna leave soon anyways" point, is there any reason at all that you didn't (or couldn't) prove you had work done?

 

[Socreges]

That's effectively what happened. The guy wanted him gone, found something he could use against the OP, and made it happen.

OK, kirblar

My point is that there were other people involved. IT dude helped but they did not share his motive.

 

[bill0527]

Petty man-children motherfuckers working in IT? Say it ain't so !!

Not even a warning though is bullshit unless its been spelled out specifically in a company policy that you've received.

Somebody had it in for you and if it wasn't this, it would have been something else.

 

[ahoyhoy]

On my phone all day brehs

^

Wi-Fi with a common password.

 

[kirblar]

OK, kirblar

My point is that there were other people involved. IT dude helped but they did not share his motive.

If he's outranking them, it doesn't matter.

 

[riotous]

What's the purpose of this level of micromanagement? If your employees are fucking around on gaf but still able to complete their duties, who cares?

Well as others have said or implied, it's often merely a rule they fall back on to fire someone without having to prove other incompetence.

But it's certainly at times merely an over-zealous level of micromanagement. The reason for it might be a mis-understanding of how people use the internet. "OMG there's THOUSANDS OF HITS AN HOUR" could literally be someone hitting ctr-r several times an hour with all the css/img tags causing it to look like they are constantly viewing the site. Or some sort of asynchronous tech that pings the site backend making it look like page loads.

 

[Mechanized]

IT has way too much power, especially if they're buddy-buddy with management.

The thing is there could be pressure on IT if they're seen to be not doing enough work, then they have to seek out "problems" that they really don't give a shit about but they need to do something to prove their worth.

 

[sketchsanchez]

My workplace has a guest wifi with a random username and password that changes daily. I normally log my phone into that as my cellular data usage has been high during the day and my battery drains faster when not on wifi.

Can they figure out its me from that?

I'd like to know this as well

 

[blame space]

I got promoted because of NeoGAF.com

 

[norm9]

I've been red flagged by IT. Don't do anything non work related at work. These fucking nerds will ruin you if you're not careful.

 

[woolley]

I would never use my work computer for anything other than work. I have a phone and that's good enough to do what I want to do on the internet at work. Nothing good can come out of using your work computer for personal use.

 

[numble]

My workplace has a guest wifi with a random username and password that changes daily. I normally log my phone into that as my cellular data usage has been high during the day and my battery drains faster when not on wifi.

Can they figure out its me from that?

Your MAC address is always the same. If you've ever logged into a non-guest network, it is even easier.

 

[riotous]

Your MAC address is always the same. If you've ever logged into a non-guest network, it is even easier.

They are talking about their phones though.

I doubt their IT knows their phone's MAC.

They would have to monitor traffic and look for identifying info and/or examine the phone to figure it out.

 

[ShowDog]

Best to use your phone, have a cheap laptop on your desk for "music" via wifi/hotspot, or even use a simple kb/m/hdmi switch and a stick pc/raspberry pi on a second monitor. Sounds weird to go to that much "effort" to "hide not working" but it's really not considering how much effort people/corporations will go to fire you over something that makes life tolerable and doesn't impact true productivity in the slightest.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

What I was told as that they recently acquired some type of new service that allowed them to see everyones usage. They saw all the Gaf pings and said that they saw it as me not doing work all day.

I'd almost hire a lawyer over this. That's some BS.

 

[ZackieChan]

From the company's perspective, "I was getting my work done" while still having time to browse GAF means that you could have been doing more work. Work time is work time. Not GAF time.

 

[Mango Positive]

First and foremost I want to disclose that in this post I do not blame anyone but myself. This is simply me using my story to help others who may be in a situation similar to my own. Nothing more.

I work hard, I take my work very seriously. Everyday on my second monitor I'd have Neogaf open for almost a year now. I use it as a way to keep up with news that I am passionate about. Like many of you.
I get my work done on time, my co-workers in the branch I worked at respected me, and always mentioned how hard of a worker I am. I started doing new things, like tasks that were much more important and even created adverts for not only my office, but other branches as well.
Someone didn't like that. This person who didn't like this was not only head of IT but also the guy who USED to create ads, and spoke highly of himself. This person who had access to my history used my Neogaf pings as an excuse to help get me let go.
Many people were upset today, I even spoke to my ex co-workers and they think it's total bull. It was a management decision, and I learned a valuable lesson.

Again, as much as I shouldn't have been laid off for this reason. I man up and understand what not to do next time. I just extend my experience to you fellow Gaffers so that maybe something like this doesn't happen to you.

EDITED: For spelling.

I haven't read the thread yet, but this is important...

There is no god and karma is bullshit. It is up to YOU to punish this asshole. You must make him pay. Justice requires that he cry and drink heavily for a while. He must suffer.

 

[riotous]

I'd almost hire a lawyer over this. That's some BS.

They have logs of him likely violating a clear cut policy they have laid out somewhere.

I totally agree it's BS from a policy standpoint, but this is almost certainly a cut and dry case.. at will state or not.