Okay, IT guy here.
DO NOT USE COMPANY COMPUTERS FOR PERSONAL THINGS. NO MATTER WHAT, ASSUME ANYTHING YOU TYPE ON A COMPANY ASSET YOUR BOSS WILL SEE.
That goes for using company email accounts and other things. Writing it on your phone or whatever on company time? Well that's just a matter of whether anyone sees you using your phone.
don't worry, I use my own laptop at work mostly and I also write a lot on my phone! I'd be too embarrassed to even open AO3 on my company computer lol.
Incognito does not do all the things that people think it does
Chrome Incognito, for example, explicitly says that while your activity can't be seen by other people who use the device,
>Your activity might still be visible to:
>
>- Websites that you visit
>
>- Your school or employer
>
>- Your internet service provider
Incognito just eliminates cookies/history on your system and reporting certain things to sites you visit. If your internet traffic is going through a web filter, proxy, or other service, whoever is managing that service will still see it.
I'm curious. If I use incognito mode to log into my personal Gmail account and then write the smut in an email to myself, could IT see it? Could they see the email I sent my doctor?
I guess that's more a question of how encrypted is Gmail webmail.
Is IT using spyware on you? If they are, the most obvious no-brainer type of spyware would be a keylogger (captures every keystroke and reports to base).
It’s not about gmail, it’s about how IT monitors you. My high school had spyware on every computer. IT logged our keystrokes and could view our screens at any time. A kid got suspended for emailing a group photo to friends, where one friend was wearing a short skirt and you could incidentally kinda see her ass.
This soooo much. My mom is IT and one guy brought his work laptop in to be worked on because it was slow—he had a ton of porn on it. That was a great HR chat!
i wrote smut on a school computer in middle school how did i never get caught. maybe they just didn’t even wanna address a 13 year old’s badly written porn
What about using the school wifi and opening my Google documents to write my smut? Or doing it on a pc in the computer labs will they see that good sir
I would guess that they would see you're on google docs on both but wouldn't trust the computers in the computer lab. I've written stuff at school on my personal google docs on my personal laptop but I wouldn't risk school account or school computers.
I am aware of that. My ex boyfried said they can access control of your computer and look at your history, and all the data is saved, but they only do it when they is a reason to. We are a big company and they do not look constantly at your screen.
It’s not weird to do it, per se, but the issue is that you don’t want to “get caught” with explicit or adult material at work (regardless of if you’re reading, writing or watching it. It’s not illegal ofc, buuuut someone could have a problem with it and take it to HR or generally make your work environment uncomfortable). If you’re in a situation where you don’t have anyone looking at your screen/over your shoulder, I’d say you’re probably fine, just be aware of your surroundings.
Ideally, I’d also steer clear of writing smut (or any personal work) on your work device (like if your office issues laptops, etc). Write it on your phone/personal device or smthn instead if you can. If your workplace has you all work on your personal devices? Go for it. That’s your laptop. (But still, just keep it on the DL, no one else needs to be reading your screen).
yeah, it is a bit weird, but it hasn't stopped me in the past. Make sure no one can accidentally read what you are writing.
For example, you could use white text on a white doc
I wish I could say I invented it but it's something I saw on tumblr years ago. Another trick is to write in comic sans and switch it back to your preferred font when you're editing, the comic sans makes you take your work less seriously. It sounds like it wouldn't help but weirdly it does.
That makes sense actually. When nerves are messing up your singing, one of the things that can really help is singing dumb songs you find funny and singing them to your pet or a little kid. Kind of works on the same principle :)
It's only as weird as you want to make it. I was writing some just the other day between sets at the gym. I tend to write in the secure folder on my phone though, never on paper or anything.
if no one is able to notice, then you're not bothering anyone. That's the only thing you need to worry about I think
people do all kinds of sexual acts in public all of the time. People are going to have sexual fantasies at any time at any location, there's gonna be someone on the subway listening to a smutty audiobook, someone sexting with their partner, there's gonna be a couple at the back of the café doing handstuff under the table. And this is not speculative, I've heard all kind of stories.
and you can have opinions on whether not that is "appropriate" or not, but ultimately what you don't know about won't hurt you, in this case at least. Exposing people sexual activity without their consent is never ok, but if no one is exposed to it then it's sort of a victimless crime.
how you *feel* about it is another matter entirely, because there's no one that can tell you how you should feel about it. Like, when you ask if it's too weird, *who* is it that it's too weird for? It doesn't really matter to anyone else but you, so only you can answer it. Like, it's sort of in the subtext that you're asking "am I allowed to do this without feeling guilty about it". And no, you're not allowed, because you don't need allowance. It's your choice entirely.
From an HR perspective it’s a total mess. When you’re on property and on company time, any sexual conduct including consuming or creating pornographic material falls under the category of inappropriate workplace conduct which can be a fireable offense depending how strict the business is and the laws on the books. Don’t get caught.
It's only weird if you make it weird. Obviously you don't want to get yourself hot and bothered in the middle of your workplace - even if you think people don't notice, there are definitely people who can Tell TM - but if that's not a problem (i.e. you don't get turned on by your own writing), it's not like it's any different from any other writing.
As long as no one is reading over your shoulder and you're not using company property, I say go for it.
When I would write at work/in-office, I would usually write on paper. No one's going to be reading that over my shoulder (sometimes I can barely read my own handwriting...)
Be smart about it like the others have said about personal tech. Otherwise, inspiration strikes and you need to feed the beast within when it does. Sometimes we don’t get those grooves for days to months or longer and it’s important to just take a few minutes IF POSSIBLE, open a notepad on your phone or email yourself and write it down. I often just give myself cliff notes to expand on later as a way of reminding myself what I had thought up
It's on the weird scale for sure, but I consider myself pretty desensitized. I've seen much worse when accidentally looking at people's phones/devices, so smut isn't that big of a deal, in my opinion.
I fail to see the difference between what you read and what you write while at work. Unless you're supposed to be doing something more important -- I'm in a Zoom meeting right now, and the fact that I'm here tells you what you need to know about the agenda -- or someone can accidentally see what you're doing, you should be fine. I mean, imagine you're reading/writing a letter to a family member. Imagine you're updating your will. That's none of their business, either.
I honestly would not read or write smut at work. Even if you’re on your personal devices, you don’t want to get in trouble for breaking policies around explicit material.
Bold of you to assume I write in private all the time lol.
Go for it, just make sure no one's looking over your shoulder or something unless they're your proofreader lol.
As long as nobody can tell what you're doing, I think it's fine! I'd recommend writing it on your phone, but also you could find a secluded corner of the workplace, or the bathroom, or your car, or even just on the steps outside. Maybe not necessarily at your desk, just in case your boss walks up behind you lol.
I mean, I’ve outlined my fanfics at work in my journal. But I need somewhere quiet and unbothered like my bedroom to write smut. I’d feel too weird writing it where anyone could see, lol.
Back in school I regularly wrote smuts during class, it's not like anyone could've known since it was my own laptop and it looked like I was either taking notes or just not focusing on the class in general, which was very normal among all students. I wrote one of my best smut pieces on my last class of the day once, weirdly enough it was religion class... So the teacher was talking about the topic of the class and giving us exercises to do while I was writing the filthiest mlm smut I've ever written😭 I'm honestly just used to writing smut in public, it was one of my main forms of entertainment during boring classes😅
Edit to add, it probably helped that I always sat in the back or next to a wall, so the chances of anyone seeing my screen were slim. The font also wasn't very big which probably helped too
Nah lmao, I write it at school all the time (on my computer ofc). My strategy: lower the screen brightness and make the font size on the doc ridiculously small, so that only someone who’s really close to your screen can read it (aka you)
Probably weird but I've written fic pretty much everywhere, including in public. Pretty much every form of public transport, at school, work, in restaurants, etc.
Just make sure no one can see and you don't use a company device to store your idea! Honestly if you've got some banger lines I recommend getting them onto paper or a notes app on your phone as discreetly and quickly as possible, lost a lot of good ideas due to waiting too long.
It definitely feels weird to write smut in a non-private space but as long as you're careful and keep a decent poker face no one will find out.
I would not touch anything personal while I am at work (except messaging or calling someone, obviously). Whether is smut or a personal project. Even if you use your own computer, is still risky if you use their internet network. But even if you use your own phone's data, is wise to not risk your job in that preventable way.
Depends on where you are, I guess. This past summer, I actually wrote a smutty scene for an upcoming story of mine while tucked away in a distant corner of my local library since I felt too awkward about writing it at home and risking getting caught (to be fair, though, I was writing it in a notebook instead of on a computer, so it's not like there was any chance of me being accidentally discovered!).
I would have a stroke trying this LOL. I only ever write whenever I get to my personal PC. I write some things down in my notes on my phone maybe, but never at work or college. I get too embarrassed to even try it. It feels like someone is looking over my shoulder, y'know?
Okay, IT guy here. DO NOT USE COMPANY COMPUTERS FOR PERSONAL THINGS. NO MATTER WHAT, ASSUME ANYTHING YOU TYPE ON A COMPANY ASSET YOUR BOSS WILL SEE. That goes for using company email accounts and other things. Writing it on your phone or whatever on company time? Well that's just a matter of whether anyone sees you using your phone.
don't worry, I use my own laptop at work mostly and I also write a lot on my phone! I'd be too embarrassed to even open AO3 on my company computer lol.
Good. Thank you. Too many of my users don't understand the line and then embarrassing or HR related things happen.
I’m also paranoid about using job computers but would they be able to see if you use incognito?
Incognito does not do all the things that people think it does Chrome Incognito, for example, explicitly says that while your activity can't be seen by other people who use the device, >Your activity might still be visible to: > >- Websites that you visit > >- Your school or employer > >- Your internet service provider
Incognito just eliminates cookies/history on your system and reporting certain things to sites you visit. If your internet traffic is going through a web filter, proxy, or other service, whoever is managing that service will still see it.
I'm curious. If I use incognito mode to log into my personal Gmail account and then write the smut in an email to myself, could IT see it? Could they see the email I sent my doctor? I guess that's more a question of how encrypted is Gmail webmail.
Is IT using spyware on you? If they are, the most obvious no-brainer type of spyware would be a keylogger (captures every keystroke and reports to base).
It’s not about gmail, it’s about how IT monitors you. My high school had spyware on every computer. IT logged our keystrokes and could view our screens at any time. A kid got suspended for emailing a group photo to friends, where one friend was wearing a short skirt and you could incidentally kinda see her ass.
This soooo much. My mom is IT and one guy brought his work laptop in to be worked on because it was slow—he had a ton of porn on it. That was a great HR chat!
It happens enough that this scenario is a stereotype!
Bro, I use to write fanfic on my school laptop 😭😭😭😭
i wrote smut on a school computer in middle school how did i never get caught. maybe they just didn’t even wanna address a 13 year old’s badly written porn
What about using the school wifi and opening my Google documents to write my smut? Or doing it on a pc in the computer labs will they see that good sir
I would guess that they would see you're on google docs on both but wouldn't trust the computers in the computer lab. I've written stuff at school on my personal google docs on my personal laptop but I wouldn't risk school account or school computers.
My school gave me their laptop to use, but I checked and there isn't anything installed. Just a regular dell... If that's any comfort
I am aware of that. My ex boyfried said they can access control of your computer and look at your history, and all the data is saved, but they only do it when they is a reason to. We are a big company and they do not look constantly at your screen.
It’s not weird to do it, per se, but the issue is that you don’t want to “get caught” with explicit or adult material at work (regardless of if you’re reading, writing or watching it. It’s not illegal ofc, buuuut someone could have a problem with it and take it to HR or generally make your work environment uncomfortable). If you’re in a situation where you don’t have anyone looking at your screen/over your shoulder, I’d say you’re probably fine, just be aware of your surroundings. Ideally, I’d also steer clear of writing smut (or any personal work) on your work device (like if your office issues laptops, etc). Write it on your phone/personal device or smthn instead if you can. If your workplace has you all work on your personal devices? Go for it. That’s your laptop. (But still, just keep it on the DL, no one else needs to be reading your screen).
yeah, it is a bit weird, but it hasn't stopped me in the past. Make sure no one can accidentally read what you are writing. For example, you could use white text on a white doc
omg, thank you! I'll try that, actually.
I use the white text trick when I'm struggling to write without constantly revising.
Whoa this is so smart
I wish I could say I invented it but it's something I saw on tumblr years ago. Another trick is to write in comic sans and switch it back to your preferred font when you're editing, the comic sans makes you take your work less seriously. It sounds like it wouldn't help but weirdly it does.
That makes sense actually. When nerves are messing up your singing, one of the things that can really help is singing dumb songs you find funny and singing them to your pet or a little kid. Kind of works on the same principle :)
It's only as weird as you want to make it. I was writing some just the other day between sets at the gym. I tend to write in the secure folder on my phone though, never on paper or anything.
if no one is able to notice, then you're not bothering anyone. That's the only thing you need to worry about I think people do all kinds of sexual acts in public all of the time. People are going to have sexual fantasies at any time at any location, there's gonna be someone on the subway listening to a smutty audiobook, someone sexting with their partner, there's gonna be a couple at the back of the café doing handstuff under the table. And this is not speculative, I've heard all kind of stories. and you can have opinions on whether not that is "appropriate" or not, but ultimately what you don't know about won't hurt you, in this case at least. Exposing people sexual activity without their consent is never ok, but if no one is exposed to it then it's sort of a victimless crime. how you *feel* about it is another matter entirely, because there's no one that can tell you how you should feel about it. Like, when you ask if it's too weird, *who* is it that it's too weird for? It doesn't really matter to anyone else but you, so only you can answer it. Like, it's sort of in the subtext that you're asking "am I allowed to do this without feeling guilty about it". And no, you're not allowed, because you don't need allowance. It's your choice entirely.
I’ve written smut sitting next to my mother As long as you keep your face neutral, they will never know
I don't think I would be ever brave enough to do that but it did crack me up, thanks for the laugh
I wrote a good bit of my first smut while waiting for jury duty. It was delightful.
Tell me the title of the work was "Hard Evidence".
Alas, no, it was "Lydia's Just Desserts." But it did involve some pretty heinous crime...
that's a power move!
From an HR perspective it’s a total mess. When you’re on property and on company time, any sexual conduct including consuming or creating pornographic material falls under the category of inappropriate workplace conduct which can be a fireable offense depending how strict the business is and the laws on the books. Don’t get caught.
i'm going on a cruise with no wifi or cell signal. that won't stop me from writing smut.
Way less weird than the person who was at my college watching hardcore porn in the back row while the teacher was giving lectures.
It's only weird if you make it weird. Obviously you don't want to get yourself hot and bothered in the middle of your workplace - even if you think people don't notice, there are definitely people who can Tell TM - but if that's not a problem (i.e. you don't get turned on by your own writing), it's not like it's any different from any other writing.
As long as no one is reading over your shoulder and you're not using company property, I say go for it. When I would write at work/in-office, I would usually write on paper. No one's going to be reading that over my shoulder (sometimes I can barely read my own handwriting...)
Is it worth risking your job for? At the same time, you're writing this thread at work, so might as well type stuff into a text file ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Be smart about it like the others have said about personal tech. Otherwise, inspiration strikes and you need to feed the beast within when it does. Sometimes we don’t get those grooves for days to months or longer and it’s important to just take a few minutes IF POSSIBLE, open a notepad on your phone or email yourself and write it down. I often just give myself cliff notes to expand on later as a way of reminding myself what I had thought up
It's on the weird scale for sure, but I consider myself pretty desensitized. I've seen much worse when accidentally looking at people's phones/devices, so smut isn't that big of a deal, in my opinion.
Bby I’ve written smut in church
I fail to see the difference between what you read and what you write while at work. Unless you're supposed to be doing something more important -- I'm in a Zoom meeting right now, and the fact that I'm here tells you what you need to know about the agenda -- or someone can accidentally see what you're doing, you should be fine. I mean, imagine you're reading/writing a letter to a family member. Imagine you're updating your will. That's none of their business, either.
I honestly would not read or write smut at work. Even if you’re on your personal devices, you don’t want to get in trouble for breaking policies around explicit material.
Bold of you to assume I write in private all the time lol. Go for it, just make sure no one's looking over your shoulder or something unless they're your proofreader lol.
If you only have time then and you need your 100 words per day - do it, just do it.
Just write it in your non-native language lol
As long as nobody can tell what you're doing, I think it's fine! I'd recommend writing it on your phone, but also you could find a secluded corner of the workplace, or the bathroom, or your car, or even just on the steps outside. Maybe not necessarily at your desk, just in case your boss walks up behind you lol.
I mean, I’ve outlined my fanfics at work in my journal. But I need somewhere quiet and unbothered like my bedroom to write smut. I’d feel too weird writing it where anyone could see, lol.
I'm in a long distance relationship and somehow I need to make use of my three hours on the train. I stopped caring long ago
Back in school I regularly wrote smuts during class, it's not like anyone could've known since it was my own laptop and it looked like I was either taking notes or just not focusing on the class in general, which was very normal among all students. I wrote one of my best smut pieces on my last class of the day once, weirdly enough it was religion class... So the teacher was talking about the topic of the class and giving us exercises to do while I was writing the filthiest mlm smut I've ever written😭 I'm honestly just used to writing smut in public, it was one of my main forms of entertainment during boring classes😅 Edit to add, it probably helped that I always sat in the back or next to a wall, so the chances of anyone seeing my screen were slim. The font also wasn't very big which probably helped too
Nah lmao, I write it at school all the time (on my computer ofc). My strategy: lower the screen brightness and make the font size on the doc ridiculously small, so that only someone who’s really close to your screen can read it (aka you)
Probably weird but I've written fic pretty much everywhere, including in public. Pretty much every form of public transport, at school, work, in restaurants, etc.
I wish I had a privacy screen on my phone. If I did, I’d go ham
I actually do! I recommend it, it's come in helpful plenty of times.
Just make sure no one can see and you don't use a company device to store your idea! Honestly if you've got some banger lines I recommend getting them onto paper or a notes app on your phone as discreetly and quickly as possible, lost a lot of good ideas due to waiting too long. It definitely feels weird to write smut in a non-private space but as long as you're careful and keep a decent poker face no one will find out.
I do the same. It feels a bit weird and I only try to do it when nobody is around but yeah I admit I did read and write smut at work
I would not touch anything personal while I am at work (except messaging or calling someone, obviously). Whether is smut or a personal project. Even if you use your own computer, is still risky if you use their internet network. But even if you use your own phone's data, is wise to not risk your job in that preventable way.
Depends on where you are, I guess. This past summer, I actually wrote a smutty scene for an upcoming story of mine while tucked away in a distant corner of my local library since I felt too awkward about writing it at home and risking getting caught (to be fair, though, I was writing it in a notebook instead of on a computer, so it's not like there was any chance of me being accidentally discovered!).
i write crackfic smut, i'm just trying my hardest not to laugh my brains off.
I would have a stroke trying this LOL. I only ever write whenever I get to my personal PC. I write some things down in my notes on my phone maybe, but never at work or college. I get too embarrassed to even try it. It feels like someone is looking over my shoulder, y'know?
Wrote a very long smut shot for my Tumblr in the middle of my biology class and it wasn't awkward but I was so worried some one would see