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In 2008 I took my first web development job for an agency that's no longer around. There was a Vice President there by appointment from our coke headed owner who really liked to micromanage and invade privacy with key loggers and screencap spyware to "manage" us. I found out because my machine would snag when moving the mouse cursor and sometimes I'd accidentally paste the screenshot into photoshop just before the software cleared the clipboard. Anyway, I wasn't supposed to know I was being monitored so I just unplugged my network cable and killed the service running the jank ass spyware. I'd delete it when no one was looking and wipe out the cache of screencaps it would compile every day. It was basically a troll vs troll stalemate for weeks. Finally they gave in and told everyone what was going on so we collectively decided to seek revenge. We bought a piezo buzzer about the size of a quarter that chirped like crickets at random intervals. We stuck it on the underside of his desk inside of the middle drawer area and let it go. They spent so much time and money trying to get rid of the cricket infestation. We let it go on for weeks. I ended up quitting before the gag was up, but damn was it funny to see him squirm in that office because of those crickets!

Comments
  • 15
    OMG! Keyloggers and screen grab software!? Prisoners are better off than that. What a shame!

    Lol! That was a sick prank!
  • 9
    @sterex yes and this was my first "big boy" job to start my career. When I finally did quit, the owner called me and cursed at me with all kinds of rants because after a few days had gone by, the machine started blue screening and getting stuck in post boot loops. I was accused of sabotage. I politely told him to f*ck off and that the VP was to blame because he was putting all the machines at risk by installing spyware on them. Then I told him I would start my own web design business and wouldn't stop until there was a "for sale" sign in his front yard. In 2013 after 5 years on my own, I had already seen the for sale sign, but I also saw him be forcibly removed from shareholding to being fired and investigated for embezzlement. After I left, within 6 months the rest of the team less 1 guy left them. Those vacancies led to new people and new opportunities for stock ownership so they began to look at the books and see it wasn't adding up. That cricket buzzer might have saved a few devs.
  • 5
    Sad you had to start your career with this awful 'person'. But seems it made you stronger.
    Onward and upward!
  • 3
    @lquessenberry What atrocity! Trying to pin you for sabotage! Great the way you picked yourself up.
  • 1
    @sterex The whole experience was a catalyst for several of my coworkers to progress their careers. We're all very successful in our own light due to the lessons we learned there. The lulz were so strong.

    At one point we took a small pinhole USB camera and pinned it on the side of an old machine we never used to monitor the hallway for that certain VP so that our lead dev could see that he was coming. That worked for about 5 minutes because the lag took too long to notice him coming. :P
  • 1
    @lquessenberry Hahaha.. So you did have your share of fun! :-)
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