[Sigia-l] OT: Usability Prank

Thu Jul 15 09:21:55 EDT 2004

Russ, you act as if I had publicized the name of the employee, the company
he worked for and the client in question, but none of these was made
available. I did praise him fully, in public and to his boss, and the
episode in which I taught him a lesson was private - and STILL IS, since I
never revealed any information that could help anyone trace any of the
people or companies involved. Alex

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Russ Unger" <russ at bluechromedesign.com>
To: "'sigia-l'" <sigia-l at mail.asis.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:11 AM
Subject: [Sigia-l] OT: Usability Prank

> > 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.
>
> From a personal and professional perspective, after seeing that you've
> pulled such a prank and shared it in a public forum, that would prevent
> me from hiring you.  That's my opinion.  Harsh or not, it's taken from
> an interpretation of what you wrote, and you have to take ownership of
> that.  Take a look at the responses--a lot were quite similar in nature.
>
> > So, there are two sides to every question.
>
> I didn't see a question.  I saw a story relating to how you behave in
> the workplace.
>
> Russ
>
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