Upcoming Post is Not Safe For Work (NSFW)
Upcoming Post is Not Safe For Work (NSFW)
Adventures in Leadership Land is all about avoiding failure. We figured we should warn you before we inject bawdy language into your work inbox.
Our goal is to help readers avoid predicaments that could land them in the Career Swamp. However, our upcoming post this Friday (8/16/24) comes from deep within the Taboo Tunnels. If you’re reading this on an employer-issued device, this Friday’s content might trigger the IT spyware that’s running on your device.
Therefore, we’re making an unusual request:
If you normally read Adventures in Leadership Land on a work device, please unsubscribe.
Of course, we invite you to re-subscribe afterward with a personal email (or burner account, if you’d prefer). If you’re already subscribed with a personal account, be warned that there’s a higher-than-usual chance that this week’s post will be diverted from your inbox to your spambox.
Was this important enough to deserve its own post?
Maybe not. But there’s purpose to the paranoia.
One of us works at an organization where all the laptops are issued to employees with babysitting software. If I visit a webpage with too much flesh-colored imagery, the cyber-nanny will block the page and say, “I WILL SHIELD YOUR EYES FROM THE NUDITY!” The software once blocked a Wikipedia page because it detected keywords associated with weapons and violence. The virtual chaperone lurks in the background of my internet browsing activities, ready to pop out of the bushes to defend my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed innocence.1
“You’re welcome.” It says. “No need to thank me.”
I’m pretty sure that with every transgression, my name goes on a naughty list somewhere in the bowels of the IT department. I suspect that if my name appears too many times, the morality police will kick down my door in the middle of the night, stuff my head inside a black bag, and drag me to the organization’s dungeon where they force me to memorize the IT Acceptable Use Policy. Failure to comply constitutes grounds for further admonishment.
That’s a fate we do not wish upon our readers.
In the future, content that’s likely to raise eyebrows will contain a [NSFW] tag in the title. We’ll try to keep that to a minimum because it’s perfectly reasonable for someone to:
Stumble upon our posts
Think “oh, it’s yet another leadership blog, but this one isn’t bone-dry!”
Subscribe with their work email, since work is the place where leadership stuff is most relevant.
So, a tiny bit of self-censorship is justified here – the same reason we don’t type out the four-letter words that often cross our minds (and lips) when workplace drama unfolds.
You’re welcome. No need to thank us for defending your bright-eyed and bushy-tailed innocence.
That’s the explanation fed to the gullible. For the cynics, the cyber-nanny protects the organization against liability.