Would You Look?

[Si Hunt]

You may or may not know that I work with pension statements for a living. Well, this week I've been told that my next Client will be our own firm - I've got to process the pension statements for everyone in the office. This means I've been given access to the pension and salary details of all my colleagues and my bosses. At the click of a button, I can see on my screen what anyone else is earning.

It's an interesting moral question. No-one would know if I took a peek at what my colleagues, or my boss, was earning. Yet I'm not sure if knowing this would neccesarily lead to happiness.

What do you think. Would you look?

Incidentally, I have already decided that I'm NOT going to look at anyone's information, purely for a 'personal honour' reason. I just wondered what your take on it was - answer honestly!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

I'd look. It shouldn't be an issue!

Sounds a bit obnoxious, perhaps, but I trust myself to be responsible with the knowledge, not to gossip down the pub etc. I'm happy with what I earn.

It doesn't matter what everybody else is on.

[Si Hunt]

By the way, although I've been warned not to leave data on shared drives or in an insecure place, I've not been told not to look at the data of friends or associates; in fact it's probably expected that I'll HAVE to see it in order to work on it.

Si.

[Ralph]

I can look at personal finance details of people I work with but have never done so. I can see why someone might be tempted particularly in the circumstances described but knowing may not make you feel more postive IMO about your workplace and it might have the opposite effect? In any event from your description you will inevitably see the details in any case.

[Si Hunt]

In any event from your description you will inevitably see the details in any case.

Not really. The data is mostly numerical, and doesn't make a lot of sense while I'm working on it. The access I've got does enable me to look someone up with a few seconds effort (as there is a 'Surname' field right at the end), but I won't see anything decipherable by accident.

Si.

[Trudi G]

Trouble is, if you do look and happen to find out you're on less money for doing the same job, you're not going to be very happy about it. It happened where my ex used to work - his female fellow employee found out she was on a basic that was about 30% less than all the men in the office, doing the same job - and she wasn't happy about it!

[Dirk Gently]

I'd look. It shouldn't be an issue!

Sounds a bit obnoxious, perhaps, but I trust myself to be responsible with the knowledge, not to gossip down the pub etc. I'm happy with what I earn.

It doesn't matter what everybody else is on.

What Steve said, you're responsible enough to know if you're crossing the line or not. Your boss obviously trusts you with the power you have.

[cullsoft]

What Steve said, you're responsible enough to know if you're crossing the line or not. Your boss obviously trusts you with the power you have.

That's what I was thinking - so long as you're sensible and responsible with the data, and respect the issues of data privacy (i.e. you're only looking at it for the purposes of the work you need to do, no more and no less), it's not an issue you should worry about.

As to whether or not I'd do it... only if I felt I was in the right state of mind for looking at the data and not going to go on any sort of "who gets paid what" bender. Curiosity would encourage me to look, though - and letting curiosity get the better of me can be dangerous.

[WhiteCrow]

In all seriousness, I'd not look. Simply because money is one of those things that gets people so riled up.

At my last place I got royally stuffed by the compensation system, and they seemed to cock up my pay rise for several years - I'd get promoted by the promised pay rise never materialised. Wonder why I left?

Anyway I found out that someone who worked in a junior capacity to me, knew less than me, and generally didn't do much was on more than me. It didn't make me happy.