Boss Asks IT Guy To Spy on His Employees To Discover Browsing Habits, Only To Expose His Own Addiction to Porn

A company boss who ordered an IT worker to monitor staff browsing reportedly ended up exposing his own extensive pornography use in the very reports he had demanded.

The IT worker described the incident in a post on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance, saying the company's founder and president wanted employees' internet activity tracked and reviewed by management. The account has not been independently verified, and the Reddit user did not identify the company, its executives or the employees involved.

Boss Orders Company‑Wide Internet Monitoring

According to the post, the boss had become concerned that employees at the company's sales call centre were spending too much time browsing the internet. The IT worker said he was instructed to create reports showing employees' browsing histories so managers and HR could review their internet use during weekly meetings.

Rather than monitoring only the call centre, the worker said he built a system that collected browser histories from Windows computers across the company's domain. 'So I complied,' he wrote.

The system stored the browsing information centrally and allowed reports to be generated for individual users, according to the account. The initial results did not appear unusual, with the worker describing employees' browsing as largely involving Facebook, YouTube, Amazon and other routine internet activity.

Boss's Browsing History Stands Out in Reports

The situation changed when the reports began capturing the browsing activity of senior executives.

The IT worker said the browsing history of the company's founder, owner and president contained a very large amount of pornography.

'The browsing history of the founder, owner, and president was absolutely spectacular,' he wrote. He said the amount of pornography was so extensive that it appeared to him to indicate a serious problem.

The worker claimed he was not completely surprised because he had previously worked on the founder's home computer and had encountered similar browsing activity. The monitoring system, however, meant the executive's internet use was now appearing in the same reports created to scrutinise employees.

HR Tries To Remove Senior Names From Monitoring

The IT worker said the situation became more awkward several days later when HR approached him about removing certain people from the reports. He said he was given a list of names, with the company president at the top.

The request came after the monitoring system had already begun collecting browsing information across the company's computers, according to the post. The worker said the president's activity was therefore already captured by the system he had been instructed to create.

The post does not say whether the president faced disciplinary action or whether the monitoring programme was subsequently changed.

Senior Staff Enjoyed Internet Exceptions

The Reddit account also describes how the company handled internet filtering. A commenter asked why the company did not simply block pornography and other inappropriate websites.

The IT worker said internet filters were already in place, but managers and C‑suite executives had been given exemptions after complaining about restrictions. 'Not my decision,' he wrote.

That meant senior executives could access websites that were restricted for other employees, while the new monitoring system was collecting browsing histories across the company's network.

The worker said the monitoring programme was intended to provide management with information about employee productivity. The reports also produced a record of the browsing activity of the executive who had ordered the system.

Reddit Users Respond To Monitoring Story

The post was published in r/MaliciousCompliance, a subreddit where users share stories about following workplace instructions literally and the consequences that can result. Users responding to the post discussed workplace surveillance, executive exemptions and the privacy implications of collecting employees' browsing histories.

The comments do not independently verify the incident described by the original poster. The Reddit user also did not provide company records, screenshots or other documentation that could independently establish what happened.