Empowered versus non-empowered administrators and managers. This is the incomplete blog that I was working on when I ended up hosting the guest blog a short time ago. Please recall that the discussion included the concept of administrators who sound empowered but are not. They are the biggest risk.

So I want to purchase an upgrade to my excel because the enhanced output is mandated by a federal agency. An administrator does not wish to approve the purchase and suggests I download a free office package that has this one program in it for their version of excel.

Lets skip the whole thing about the time it would take to learn a new office system, a new spread sheet and the upload itself. Plus it is not clear that the new system will produce what the feds require. Within the new system there are strict rules about terms of use and the “free” site terms have the following.

“b. Use at Your Own Risk. You understand that … [we] do not pre-screen Materials, and You agree to assume all risks in Using them. These risks include, but are not limited to, errors, viruses, worms, time-limited software that expires without notice , and the possibility that the Materials infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of others. You agree to assume all such risks.”

My understanding is that I am not supposed put the system at risk of virus’ and cannot okay those terms. My organization has strict rules about taking on such responsibility and my computer is networked to a host of others, so my risk is passed on to those systems, which is not allowed. So if I did what the administrator told me, I would be in serious breach of policy. The person who would get in trouble is me.  Plus, I still do not have the software I need.

That is just sad.