[Sigia-l] OT: Usability Prank

[Russ Unger]

> I think you guys are being too hard on me.

Unfortunately, I strongly disagree.

> 1) Russ, I don't think it was an unprofessional attitude. It 
> didn't impact
> or
> influence or interfere with the job at hand, it was done at 
> lunchtime and
> there was no breach of the confidentiality of the test. 
> Exactly what was
> unprofessional about it?

The fact that you shared it to a public, searchable list, and also
included your personal blog in your signature.  It's pretty easy to
trace this back to you and to show behaviors, professional attitudes and
approaches and to show management style.  It certainly may interfere
with your ability to find future work if anyone does a search on your
name.

> 2) It was a private "joke" that stayed between my assistant 
> and I. No one
> else ever heard about it. It wasn't a public humiliation or 
> something. After
> the fact, I told him his performance was actually great, he 
> only had to mind
> my privacy. And we continued to be good friends and good workmates.

Not any longer.  We've all heard about it now.  Just to show you
something:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=russ
+unger  That's right.  The first results under Google for my name are at
SIGIA-L Mail Archives.  Better check for yourself:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=alexandre+castro+e+sil
va Yep, it's 4 or 5 down on the list.

It doesn't matter what you told him after the fact--that's not changing
the fact that you did the act and then sent something to this list,
identified it as a "prank" and came off as being somewhat of a
braggart--and I'm only saying that based upon the responses that I've
read, combined with my own feelings.  If that's how you joke, sir, then,
personally, I'd have no desire to do business with you and I can imagine
that there are several other persons in the professional world that
might feel nearly the same way.

> 3) I don't consider the subject to be off-topic in a 
> Usability-related list.
> It's a kind of story that only people who have conducted 
> Usability tests can
> fully understand.

I disagree.  It didn't have to do with usability.  It had to do with
your dealing with a subordinate who did not follow your instructions.
Praise publicly, criticize in private--that's my personal approach to
these issues, and it's hardly private when the forum you're mentioning
it in is very public and accessible.
 
> 4) I had already told him to respect my privacy and it DIDN'T 
> work. This
> private lesson, or prank, call it what you want, did the job. He never
> peeped into my email again.

That's between you and him, not all of us.  Spin it as you'd like, but
it had no place on the list.  Reading your email doesn't have anything
to do with Usability.

> 5) Boniface, just for the record, I thought the story had 
> made it plain: I
> didn't complain to his boss, I merely pretended to. In fact, 
> his performance
> (as I told him later) was flawless - except for peeping into my email!

Where's the usability point here?

> 6) Gunnar, I didn't brag and I certainly didn't ask for 
> anyone's admiration.
> I was just telling a story to people who'd have the 
> professional backround
> to understand it.

Then why post it to a public, searchable list?  I didn't see anything,
other than the fact that it happened during usability testing, that made
this issue anything more than a breach of privacy. If you are seeing it
as something different, I find it difficult to understand.

> bunch of stuff

You said--it's a worldwide list.  And again, publicly searchable.  I
don't think anyone has a big concern over the prank, other than the fact
that you posted it and now it's attached to you.  Well, at least I
didn't have an issue with it; you're digging your own grave as far as
I'm concerned.  It's a very common practice to "Google" whomever you are
interviewing, hiring, etc. and you've attached a performance example to
your name now.  That's yours to live with.