Let's be honest with ourselves - yes, we love to apply double standards. We readily stigmatize others for what we gladly allow ourselves. Well, simply for the reason that this is us, and in general, as the great French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once said, "Hell is other people."
Double standards accompany us everywhere and always; sometimes it even seems that they are "stitched" into our nature, and even the most righteous person is actually only the least affected by them. And we can say the same about the classic naughty bosses from this story from the user u/mdlapla.
The author of the post once had a part-time job as a system administrator for some small company
Image credits: Karen Chichester (not the actual photo)
There were three bosses there, and none of them really even tried to work hard throughout the day
Image credits: mdlapla
Image credits: Toms Baugis (not the actual photo)
Image credits: mdlapla
The employees were hardworking, but the higher-ups just devoted their time to browsing and watching some NSFW content
Image credits: herval (not the actual photo)
Image credits: mdlapla
One day the boss saw one of the sales reps browsing instead of doing calls - and demanded that the staff cut off the internet
Image credits: Molly Des Jardin (not the actual photo)
Image credits: mdlapla
The author complied maliciously, cut the internet to the whole office - and soon after, the bosses demanded he turn it back on
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that when he was still at university, he found himself a part-time job related to system administrating. The OP and his friend had several clients in whose offices they set up the internet and networking, installed anti-virus and monitored the software on working desktops. And so, one of those clients was a small company that sold printers and other printer-related stuff.
The co-owners of the company were two women, the husband of one of whom was also the CEO. In addition to this trio, there were usually two hardworking sales representatives and an accountant in the office (same in name as the CEO - just remember this fact, it is important for subsequent events). And there were also a few technicians on the staff, but they did not work in the office.
Already from the first words of the description of the company's standard working day, told by the author of the post, it becomes pretty strange how the firm did not go bankrupt in the very first year of its existence. The thing is that none of the three bosses bothered to work in any way - one of the owners spent all her time online shopping, the second constantly texted with some guy (also sharing names with the CEO and accountant - also remember this fact, it is even more important for subsequent events), and the CEO himself shamelessly indulged in watching NSFW content on a work desktop.
The wife of the CEO, however, did not bother at all - she, as we have already mentioned, was too busy browsing. But the OP, when he came to the office, had to clean the computer every time from a huge amount of viruses that the boss inevitably installed while browsing sketchy sites. Apparently, his views on the cause of the appearance of these viruses was similar to the beliefs of those medieval dudes who sincerely stated that mice and cockroaches spontaneously arise from dust and dirt...
And now we are gradually approaching the culmination of our story - on his next visit, one of the owners of the company approached the OP and demanded that the internet be turned off for all employees (except for the bosses, of course), because she had just seen one of the sales reps browsing instead of doing work calls. This isolated case seemed so outrageous to the woman that she decided to force staff to be 'more productive' this way.
Well, the OP just maliciously complied - and turned off the internet to the entire office, after which he sat down and waited for someone to come and complain first. As he expected, none of the employees even noticed the changes, because everyone was working extremely hard. But both owners and the CEO, literally a few minutes later, appeared in all the fire of righteous anger and demanded the return of the internet - but only for themselves.
Not wanting to be led, the author told them all sorts of pseudo-technical nonsense about dynamic IPs and the inability to selectively turn off the internet - so after several minutes of painful choice between the "efficiency" of employees and their own everyday "working" habits, the higher-ups firmly ordered the internet turned back on for the entire office!
Image credits: Nicolas Nova (not the actual photo)
As the original poster recalls, this story ended even more amusingly after some time - the owner's lively love texting with that very guy ended up with her mistakenly sending another romantic message to the identically named accountant. And everything would have been fine, but at that moment the accountant was showing something on his screen to the CEO... Then followed the scene of an ugly family scandal, which the OP wishes he had watched with a bucket of popcorn. Black screen, credits, music 'directed by Robert D. Weide...'
And now comes a post-credits scene. In the comments, the original poster said that after some time, that very CEO called him and a friend to set up the network for his new company. The author thought a bit - and refused. After that, the man called them both thieves and hung up the phone. And in the comments, people tried to suggest to the author some easy solutions on how to cut the internet partly for some employees without depriving the rest of access.
To this, however, the OP honestly replied that he was very familiar with such technical solutions, however, in his opinion, "the hardworking guys didn't deserve [his] efforts to be used against them." A noble decision, as many folks in the comments considered. And how would you, our dear readers, act in this situation if you were in the place of the original poster?
Most of the commenters just cracked up at the story, especially since the author told the comic circumstances under which the company closed soon after
