sod off it's my computer!

[kenobi]

The following post is utterly trivial. But seriously, AIBU?

I have the only computer in the office with hotmail/yahoo/gmail etc on it. This means that anyone who wants to check their personal mail slopes up to me and asks if they can have a 'quick check'.
I have conjunctivitus, caught from my daughter as a lovely Christmas pressie after her NINTH consecutive cold, so I've warned everyone to stay off. But secretly I was glad as everyone is sick after Christmas and I felt that I wouldn't have coldy people sneezing and coughing onto my desk and helping to give me and DD our tenth cold.

However I just discovered one of my colleagues used it anyway during my lunch break without asking. I only found out because she asked if she could use it again. She said that she had washed her hands very well afterwards. (well what about before??? humph). I went a bit frosty if I'm honest and said she could use it after I left at 5pm as I was busy.

I mean... it's MY darn computer (well ok the company's but...) and I could have had private stuff lying about. Bloody ask!
(I may have been a little embarrassed because the open page was MN.)

Should the hotmailers all just FUCK off or should I accept that it's not harming me or my work output, realise that I'm getting a bit Howard Hughes about germs, and shut up?

Change your password. Also either lock (or logoff) your workstation everytime you walk away from it. You could also set your screen saver to automatically lock your workstation after say 5 or 10 minutes of no usage.

Blimey, I'd never walk off and leave my work computer unlocked so anyone could use it. Germs are the least of your worries! Log out! Then if they want to check their mail they will have to (a) wait until you're not there and (b) log in as themselves.

my bro found someone using his computer once; he was really shocked and told the person that it was like wearing his underpants!

I'd be very careful that your manager knows exactly what's happening here. Where I work (not office-based) using a computer, or internet enabled mobile, for personal reasons is gross misconduct.

If I were you, I'd be concerned that your log in history shows that a large portion of you day is spent on email and social networking websites and you could be accused of neglecting your work...

I was just thinking how clever you all were and what an obvious solution, and scampered off to my settings. But I can't change the lock settings on my computer as I 'don't have administrative privileges' apparently.

Am now feeling slightly unnerved.

purplepidjbauble - very, very, good point...

YANBU. I was off sick a couple of weeks before Christmas and someone used my computer while something was being done to theirs and then bitched to all and sundry about the piles of paper on my desk. Well, excuse me if I have my work sorted into piles and I wasn't expecting a) to be off and b) The Queen of the World to be using my desk while I was.

I had an problem a couple of years ago where someone was using my internet log in rather than getting their own sorted. Once I found out I knocked it right on the head, changed my password and recorded it all in writing to line management/ICT just in case any issues arose. I was not amused.

Just hit the Ctrl, Alt & Delete keys at the same time, it'll lock the screen and only your password will unlock it.

Tell them to get an iPhone or blackberry and sod off..

Thanks everyone. Have asked IT for the adminstrator password and make everyone's life that bit harder!

windows key and 'L' locks it
i would NEVER leave my computer unlocked, even if going to the bog

way too easy for someone to accidentally look up a banned site while messing about and get me done for serious misconduct. Close friend was disciplined for gross misconduct as an email containing 'sensitive' info was sent from her login....

the hotmailers should do it on their own time not their company's time.

there are such a thing as smart phones, all my emails go to my phone.

am with the others here, although in our office we 'hot desk' so use whatever computer is free, germs I would be worried about, but what they are doing or looking at i would be.

How is yours the only computer 'with hotmail on it'?

Do the others not connect to the internet then?

personally my bug bear is that no one employee should be doing anything on a company computer that is of a personal nature in work time.

Im old, and I would sack anyone I employed who I found surfing the net on company time!

TrillianAstra - my thoughts exactly..

And the Administrator password! Don't you have your own login on the computer?

Where are you working? 1997?

I work in an IT department, we control web access for the entire company. Sites like Hotmail are hotbeds for viruses because idiots people open up email attachments from sources that are not necessarily trusted. Your friend sending you photos via Hotmail could cause your entire work network to break out in a virus if your friend's home PC is infected. So we filter web access for employees so that they cannot access Hotmail and other web based mail sites. I am wondering why your IT dept is allowing unrestricted access on your PC, perhaps there is a good reason, but you are abusing it by allowing your colleagues to use your PC to access this stuff. If it is accessed under your login then you are the one that is responsible. Then again if you are not supposed to have this access and you have now queried it with IT hopefully they will put a stop to it and all your computer-sharing woes will come to an end.

Yeah, why are you the only one who has internet access? Also, do you not have a log in already, to get into your network?

If you don't, then your company has larger security issues than people cruising the internet during working hours.

TrillianAstra: the nature of my job means I have to post on social networking sites. Also one of our freelancers does not have a work email account (which is daft) so she has to use her hotmail account. I would actually happily have it removed but she still has to use 'my' computer from time to time. This I don't mind as it's work related.
The other computers have controlled web access because of exactly what lotterywinners is describing, and also to stop people fannying about on work time. That said MN is not work-related so I need to stop using it! FabbyChic, I bow my head in shame.
(PS My working day starts at 9.30am.)

TheCrackFox - Snort!

ChunkyPickle, LunaticFringe: I know, I sound like a total Luddite. My computer knowledge is entirely based on certain software packages and the workings of the actual computer are a dark mystery to me.
But the admin thing is mad - my server alias is currently nestling in a totally unrelated file called Courtauld Renoir and I cannot change the name or move it out of the folder as I don't have privileges. We have an external company for IT and they don't get back to us for days sometimes, so we learn to get on with things. I also can't update my Acrobat software because I don't have privileges. Sorry, boring!

Anyway. I have figured that I can log myself in and out by clicking the apple on the top left of my Mac, as per everyone's advice.

This is why I love MN - everyone has thrown up a load of points which are far more relevant than the one I originally posted about. Cheers, everyone. Fancy a cup of tea?