Originally posted to the sidebar by "snoofle"...

Some time back, I worked for a large company (now defunct). It was your basic IT department of about 150 people organized into groups of ~10, all on a big open cubicle farm on one floor. Every barrel has it's bad apple. Ours would routinely view kiddie porn - during work hours. He would occasionally leave the images up on the screen when he walked away. Finally, someone got offended enough to say something to HR. HR had "the talk" with him. A few weeks later, he did it again. The same person was offended, again, and complained to HR, again. The same person from HR had "the next talk" with him. A few weeks later he did it yet again. The same person made a much more formal complaint to HR. The head of HR told his #1 to sit down with everyone in IT, 5 at a time, with their immediate boss and their boss, and lay down the law.

Personally, I think they were excessively tolerant to this point.

Ok, so it's time for me and 4 of my peers, and 2 levels of management to go sit in a conference room and get yelled at. And yell she (HR #1) did. For 45 continuous minutes. "You people have no morals. You people don't obey the rules. You people..." I had zoned out, but had finally had it, and fired back: "WE aren't the ones doing it! You are preaching to the choir. You know who did it - just fire him!" She fired back "But you people are downloading an unhealthy amount of kiddie porn..."

I knew what she meant, but before I could think, I fired back, on auto-pilot: "So what does the company consider a healthy amount of kiddie porn?" I knew it was wrong as I started saying it, but it was like watching a train wreck as it happens - you just can't stop.

Both of my bosses just slapped their hands on their faces.

The HR #1 was tongue-tied.

Later that day, I got, shall we say, "talked to" by both bosses, about the intricacies of knowing when to keep my mouth shut, but off the record they thought it was the best line ever.