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I Made My Day Job More Efficient Through Automation. Now I'm Under Investigation and Could Lose My Job!

Zedcars

Zedcars

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Hello,

I work in a lowly paid admin job in the UK in the public health sector. 2 years ago I wrote a handful of scripts that allowed me to do my repetitive PC tasks in approximately 1/4 of the time that it would normally take. I used Microsoft’s UI Automation Framework controlled by AutoHotKey (AHK). I installed nothing. AHK can run without installation and was not flagged up by their AV. I worked in my own time to build these scripts and used them successfully for 2 years. They do not put the data at risk because they are not sending anything out on the internet - merely simulating mouse and keyboard movements and inputing specific text into elements of the UI. I did not seek upper management approval since they are clueless about this kind of thing and would not have understood what I was doing. However, I did show some of it to one IT savvy supervisor who allowed me to continue and turned a blind eye to it all. I’ll call him Bob.

2 weeks ago we had to submit timings for all of our daily tasks. Bob approached me on 2 separate occasions to question why my timings were so quick for each task and was I sure they were accurate. I said yes. The second time he queried me I took him to one side to explain what I was doing. He started yelling at me saying “You can’t do that! You shouldn’t be doing that!”. Bearing in mind I’d already showed him what I was doing a few months back, I was surprised that he was now acting with ignorance and displaying a temper. The reason, I believe, is because these timing figures would be going to upper management 3 bands above him and it would land him in trouble if she knew he was complicit in my scripting adaptations.

Directly after his outburst, I went to the back of a quiet area in a different room and repeatedly punched an old abandoned locker door. I was frustrated and angry and wanted to release my negative tension.

A second supervisor heard me and came to investigate. I’ll call her Sammy.

I got reprimanded for damaging departmental property (the “damage” was some small dents in the metal door) and asked to provide a written statement about my computer programming. I complied but had a panic attack. I suffer from anxiety and depression so get them from time to time. A nurse attended and calmed me down. Due to pressures at home and at work (a member of staff has been sexually harassing me for months) the stress has been mounting up inside me.

I have previously tried to introduce other efficiency savings within our department. I showed the other supervisor, Sammy, a few of these and she was impressed with them. I have also provided details of a new method using Excel macros to save 15 hours of time per week to the Head of the department. But, even after he promised a to reply to me twice verbally, he has failed to respond to my email months later. A follow-up email was also ignored by him.

In short I’m fearful I will lose my job. I think they are hopelessly stuck in the past. Refuse to even consider more efficient working practices. I’ve done this to make my work and the department more efficient but now I’m being treated like I’m a liability. It’s all so backwards. My other colleagues are all very supportive and understanding. I think maybe it’s time for me to leave anyway as the pay is pathetic. But I can’t find anything appropriate at the moment.

I’m now been signed off work due to anxiety and depression. I get regular supportive texts and phone calls from quite a few of my colleagues. I feel like if management had taken my suggestions seriously to begin with and showed upper management then I wouldn’t be in this situation.
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Oh my goodness. As a software dev I feel in some way your pain. People who don't "get it" and then accuse based on that is beyond aggravating, and for some reason the percentage of that seems to be at its highest in government-involved arenas regardless of what level.

At this point, your next communication when interrogated should just be something like "I do apologize for the dents in the locker... understand that it's a reaction to being accused of something wrong when I wasn't doing something wrong. I have been running those scripts to make the process more efficient and because Bob approved me to do so. The accusation aimed at me, even by HIM as if he had no part in it just sent me over the edge, because my loyalty to this position and this department has been questioned and now destroyed, which is extremely disheartening."

That's JUST a suggestion, but probably what I would say in some form. At this point, Bob betrayed you. You were given the green light and your intentions were to streamline the process and you were successful doing so. You aren't wrong because your supervisor OK'd it. It's now on him.
 
A guy who can make his work more efficient by automating his workflow and the use of modern techniques needs a promotion, a raise and be a case study for the other employees. This is so fucking backwards, I'm really sorry for you.

This is the reason I left the corporate world a few years ago, gave my suits away and promised myself never to work in that environment ever again. I've burnt as many bridges as I could and had no other options than making this music composition thingy work out. It's been 5 years now, work keeps coming in and I've never been better in my life. A career change after 40 is scary shit but it's doable.

See this as an opportunity to take a long hard look at what you really want to do, and what it takes to get there.
 
Zedcars said:
In short I’m fearful I will lose my job. I think they are hopelessly stuck in the past. Refuse to even consider more efficient working practices. I’ve done this to make my work and the department more efficient but now I’m being treated like I’m a liability. It’s all so backwards. My other colleagues are all very supportive and understanding. I think maybe it’s time for me to leave anyway as the pay is pathetic. But I can’t find anything appropriate at the moment.
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This is a common problem, I also added a lot to my work place by creating shortcuts and giving a lot more benefits to a lot of my collegues, they still work with the tools I created. Noone gave me anything about it, it is in front of everyone but I got harassed for a lot of years instead of being rewarded.

Don't worry. This is the world, this is life, many people (that unfortunately often cover the highest place) don't care about you and the good things you can do.

Look for other things outside your work and look for a very good specialist that can help you. There are a few out there that are a real treasure for the world.
 
I'm sorry for your situation.

PaulieDC said:
At this point, your next communication when interrogated should just be something like "I do apologize for the dents in the locker... understand that it's a reaction to being accused of something wrong when I wasn't doing something wrong. I have been running those scripts to make the process more efficient and because Bob approved me to do so. The accusation aimed at me, even by HIM as if he had no part in it just sent me over the edge, because my loyalty to this position and this department has been questioned and now destroyed, which is extremely disheartening."

That's JUST a suggestion, but probably what I would say in some form. At this point, Bob betrayed you. You were given the green light and your intentions were to streamline the process and you were successful doing so. You aren't wrong because your supervisor OK'd it. It's now on him.
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I think that's a great suggestion, but I would remove the part about your "loyalty to this position" having been "destroyed".

Zedcars said:
Due to pressures at home and at work (a member of staff has been sexually harassing me for months) the stress has been mounting up inside me.
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While it probably won't help with your anxiety or depression, I suggest that you report the member of staff who's been sexually harassing you. If things turn out well, they might be a lot more lenient with you after knowing that you've had to suffer that at work. If things turn out badly, at least that person will have a harder time preying on other people once you leave.

Just FYI: Bob is probably angry because your job, some of your coworkers' jobs, and perhaps his own job are all at risk if the organization you work for realizes that your duties can be done in 1/4th the time. It's inexcusable for him to lie to you ofc, but these things rarely have pretty endings.

Zedcars said:
2 weeks ago we had to submit timings for all of our daily tasks. Bob approached me on 2 separate occasions to question why my timings were so quick for each task and was I sure they were accurate.
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I think you missed his hint. "Hey, are you really sure these numbers are accurate? They're too fast!" basically means in this case "please fake your numbers, you're going to make the other employees look bad and possibly get some people fired."
 
I missed the sexual harassment part. Good grief, how awful. That changes things, you won’t be losing your job… start singing like Sinatra about that harrassment and their tune will change.
 
Companies should be glad to have staff that do anything to boost efficiency. Companies also should have policy in place how to deal with sexual harrassment on the workfloor. You should be able to reach out to someone about this without fear of reprimand or dismissal. Any company that doesn't take that seriously isn't worth your time.

I agree with @Loerpert , you're working in the wrong company.
 
I'm so sorry to hear this, it sounds like an all around awful situation :(. Best of luck to you!


PaulieDC said:
I missed the sexual harassment part. Good grief, how awful. That changes things, you won’t be losing your job… start singing like Sinatra about that harrassment and their tune will change.
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Assuming OP is male and the harrasser is female, I don't think this is such a great idea. If anything I think they'd fire him for reporting it. HR is for protecting the company, not the employees.



Zedcars said:
I used Microsoft’s UI Automation Framework controlled by AutoHotKey (AHK). I installed nothing. AHK can run without installation and was not flagged up by their AV.
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I use AHK too but if you can avoid mentioning it without lying, I would probably do so, because it does have the ability to read out keyboard inputs and I could see that being treated like a security risk. I would just say: "I just used industry standard automation software like Microsoft's UI Automation Framework to make my work more efficient. This is the way computers and software are supposed to be used on a professional level. I could type it all by hand - like I have in the past - but it would be both slower and more error-prone, so please explain to me why you would prefer me to work that way."
 
MartinH. said:
I think they'd fire him for reporting it. HR is for protecting the company, not the employees.
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This is unlikely though I've seen HR do some really stupid things believing they are doing the latter. And unless the harasser is the HR manager. But that would still be a clear-cut case of sexual discrimination. They might do nothing about it and find another pretext for sacking, but I very much doubt it would be for making a report.

At this stage, I'd say it's worth it anyway. It makes the situation for the employer 100% more complicated than just being able to scam up something about "computer misuse". Though, realistically, the employer may be at the point where they take the view of managing the OP out and the best option would simply be to look for another job.

However, if and when reporting, take copious notes. And don't worry if you make it obvious you're taking copious notes.
 
Sorry man. That's a horrible situation to be in.
There's some great advice above so I won't add anything.

It sounds like (some) of your colleagues are upset as you've rocked the cozy gravy train they were riding. That's on them really and it must be incredibly annoying and upsetting that their knee-jerk response is to turn fire on you.

Hope it works out.
 
Alex Fraser said:
It sounds like (some) of your colleagues are upset as you've rocked the cozy gravy train they were riding. That's on them really and it must be incredibly annoying and upsetting that their knee-jerk response is to turn fire on you.
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I'm not sure it's just that. This is the NHS (or an NHS trust) and they are verrrry wary about potential IT issues biting them in the future given all the public-sector IT cockups that have happened in the past. These cockups are not exclusive to the public sector but they are the ones that get reported in the newspapers and questions in parliament.

It's a very risk-averse culture for a variety of these and other reasons and so may just be a knee-jerk reaction to something out of the ordinary that involves computers among people who are expected to take the IT as it's supplied by the contractors.
 
gamma-ut said:
I'm not sure it's just that. This is the NHS (or an NHS trust) and they are verrrry wary about potential IT issues biting them in the future given all the public-sector IT cockups that have happened in the past. These cockups are not exclusive to the public sector but they are the ones that get reported in the newspapers and questions in parliament.
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That is fair, but are they actually doing things to actively protect the data? If any real offensive security expert would audit them, they'd probably realize they have their doors wide open already.
 
gamma-ut said:
It's a very risk-averse culture for a variety of these and other reasons and so may just be a knee-jerk reaction to something out of the ordinary that involves computers among people who are expected to take the IT as it's supplied by the contractors.
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Sounds about right. I have a family member who worked in NHS IT and pointedly refused to work outside any of the set parameters even when they were inefficient to the point of being daft.
 
Sorry to hear this. Just a thought, but maybe your skills would be better suited away from public sector and somewhere where initiative, time saving and problem solving skills would be better appreciated. If you can, think of the positive in this situation, career change, maybe get yourself further trained up in software development/programming skills?
 
MartinH. said:
That is fair, but are they actually doing things to actively protect the data? If any real offensive security expert would audit them, they'd probably realize they have their doors wide open already.
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The harsh reality of many of these public-sector systems is that they were commissioned and installed long before security became a hot issue. And the underlying concern in this situation may not be data getting out but getting in.

A lot of places have been hit by ransomware attacks over the past few years and though a more important vector may well be email attachments, this particular situation may have arisen because one of "Bob's" colleagues told them that software possibly coming in on a USB stick, to which they turned a blind eye, is not good for "Bob".

They can't easily lock the systems down physically (disable USB ports, limit internet access etc) because that winds up paying the contractor a shedload of money to make alterations or it's broadly incompatible with the other things the machine needs to be able to support. It's a lot easier to just tell people: don't do this. So, they have things like acceptable use policies that basically say "don't put your own stuff on these machines". But there's little in the way of enforcement other than a hard disk scan during nightly backups (assuming there are nightly backups). So, the enforcement becomes primarily a HR effort.
 
pmountford said:
Sorry to hear this. Just a thought, but maybe your skills would be better suited away from public sector and somewhere where initiative, time saving and problem solving skills would be better appreciated. If you can, think of the positive in this situation, career change, maybe get yourself further trained up in software development/programming skills?
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This, exactly.
You seem to have a spirit of taking initiative, thinking innovative solution, focus on efficiency.
Those skills are highly rejected in administration - a to a lesser extent big companies - while they are precious for midsize/small IT companies.

Your best strategy so far might be:
1. If you want to stay there, file an official complaint for sexual harassment but be ready for hard times,
2. Find another job in a better suited company.

Everytime I felt something odd coming in a company I was working for, I jumped out before it became too taxing on my mental health.
 
Thank you very much for all your replies. They’ve been very helpful. I think the advice to do a computer programming course is good. Although, it’s not going to get me a better job any time soon. But it’s something to aim for I guess.
 
Take this with a grain of what the fack ever...

Listen to these people telling you to get certified in technology if that's how you make money. Having people tell you "you're a smart guy" doesn't mean anything - you need to be able to prove it.

-make sure your resume is up to date, concise, and can make it passed an ATS scan.
-get your professional and personal references together, up to date, and warn them if you are going to use them as one
-be done with that primal therapy damage property acting out screaming shit in the workplace; no one wants to be around it, hear it, see it, be saddled with it, and if you are an American that's red flag city that you're a cuckoo clock

Job market is rough for a lot of people. Be prepared - it can suck a giant donkey dick
 
In the "prepare for wrongful termination litigation" department, just remember that THEY provided you with the tools (AHK) and it is THEIR responsibility to secure your computer station. That includes the software installed, the functionality or lack thereof of USB ports, network configuration, firewall configuration, OS configuration, etc. If you simply used the tools they provided you to use, I'd ask them point blank why they configured your station with things like AHK if the expectation was for you to not use it. And if that was the expectation, where is it documented? Now if you downloaded the tools without their knowledge and started using them, that's potential grounds for termination.
 
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