Friday, February 8, 2008

I think I just accidentally outed myself to my boss

So this morning my boss wanted to see how an email plug-in works. And my desktop picture was of a girl. And then I went to google the plugin we were talking about and when I popped up my browser window I saw that I still had a personal email in the browser window. Frick. He said nothing, but I feel/felt SO awkward and a bit self hating for not being more careful.

I think what is most upsetting is not that I partially outed myself (although I wasn't ready for that either) but that I looked unprofessional. I mean this is a work computer. Is it ok to have personal images on your work computer? I feel totally fine doing personal emailing when I'm not working on this computer. But where is the line? Most people do some personal emailing at work. I really would have rather not been caught even though it was first thing. And it wasn't just any personal email. It was personal emailing that had the word pumpkin in it. Note to self: "Be more careful!"

And no I'm not cutting for it at all but my thoughts did take a step down that road. So post this blog post which I am doing to steady myself a bit, I changed my desktop picture to a swathy funky blue background and I am going to log out of all personal stuff. Uggggg.

5 comments:

Cheryl said...

Hmmm, nothing to say, but yes, be careful. And not because you're gay, but because anything personal done at work can be used against you if they want to, no matter how harmless nor how short a period of time you take with it.

Where I used to work in B'ham, I was a conscientious work, but I would read and write personal emails. Where I work now, the culture is very different, so I basically just pretend there's no personal life outside that eight hours. I make any personal calls on my cell phone, and I only write emails that have to do with where I'm having lunch or something. And I haven't given my work email out to but a couple of people.

Anyway, like I said, just be careful, pumpkin. :)

Anonymous said...

Something similar to this happened to me too. Only it involved my personal vehicle. Sometimes my boss or co-workers may need to move my truck around at work (for reasons of farm equipment) and/or my boss sometimes just puts my paycheck directly in my truck. On at least on of these occasions, I had a couple of obviously lesbian dvds (by the pics on the front) sitting right on my truck seat from when I watched them at a friend's house the night before.

I am out at work. I came out to a co-worker three years ago and it worked it way around from there, but I do want to keep my personal life separate. I just want to keep things clean and appropriate (gay or straight).

I was kicking myself too for that little slip-up that day and vowed to be careful to not leave stuff out in the open like that (even in my owm truck).

Maybe there is a bright side to this. It was a small slip (that I can tell) and maybe it was a little reminder that just prevented a BIG slip in the future. Maybe it was positive overall. I guess we all just should be careful sometimes.

ms26

Anonymous said...

I think it just really depends on your work environment.

I don't think you should be concerned so much about it, unless it seems like your boss is really uptight about people spending too much work time on personal emails or browsing.

My current job is, and my previous was, really laid back about that sort of thing. We'd have days where we'd cram, and when deadlines were met, we'd slack off a little.

I'm bi, but I've never really "come out" to anyone. All my friends just sorta know, and as far as work is concerned, well its not really their business!

Michael said...

I hate the sickening feeling that comes when I endanger my job :(

titration said...

Thanks all of you for all the comments! I very much appreciate your thoughts. I am not super worried but will be more careful. AND I do work for a church denom. office so I actually could be at risk.

Thanks especially for sharing your on the job work outing stories! All of you. :)