The bit about the doors brings back some memories. I recall two different jobs where I noticed that a security door had been replaced with a door that, like its predecessor, still had an RFID reader and was technically a security barrier, but was trivial to open with a variety of techniques. Perhaps you can imagine this sort of door in your mind: A thick pane of glass, tastefully frosted, with a centimeter-wide gap of air between the door and jamb, and a motion sensor on the secure side for easy unlocking.
I have come to think of these doors as emblematic of the transition from engineering to marketing, from startup to entrenched player, from results-driven to people-driven, and from attention to detail to spectacle and splendor. And yes, they’re deeply hypocritical. The purpose of a door isn’t to be transparent or easy to bypass or revealing.
Similar experience here, at a previous startup job, WiFi was shutdown, we had a local IT room because everything was so confidential, no internet access in some rooms, etc… but then you could enter the parking by forcing the door, and open almost every door of the building with a regular kitchen knife…
This was so bad that at some point it became a running gag internally.
The bit about the doors brings back some memories. I recall two different jobs where I noticed that a security door had been replaced with a door that, like its predecessor, still had an RFID reader and was technically a security barrier, but was trivial to open with a variety of techniques. Perhaps you can imagine this sort of door in your mind: A thick pane of glass, tastefully frosted, with a centimeter-wide gap of air between the door and jamb, and a motion sensor on the secure side for easy unlocking.
I have come to think of these doors as emblematic of the transition from engineering to marketing, from startup to entrenched player, from results-driven to people-driven, and from attention to detail to spectacle and splendor. And yes, they’re deeply hypocritical. The purpose of a door isn’t to be transparent or easy to bypass or revealing.
Similar experience here, at a previous startup job, WiFi was shutdown, we had a local IT room because everything was so confidential, no internet access in some rooms, etc… but then you could enter the parking by forcing the door, and open almost every door of the building with a regular kitchen knife…
This was so bad that at some point it became a running gag internally.