Investigated at work (government contractor)

[berderder]

Jurisdiction

Connecticut

Hello,

I was a contractor for a large corporation dealing mostly in government contracts.

I worked in IT and lived 2 blocks from my worksite. I would occasionally go in late between hours of 8-11:30PM if I forgot something or needed to finish up something I couldn't earlier.

I would hang out in the unclassified area to do my work. I have full access to this room. This location is open (via badge access) 24 hours a day. There is a guard post right outside.

Next door to the unclassified rooms are classified/top secret rooms. You need special access, password, badge access to these rooms. No way I could get in.

I recently discovered I was under "Insider Threat" investigation for being in this building late at night. It was a 2 month long investigation that turned up nothing, because I didn't do anything. I didn't steal any data. They checked everything. Someone must have found it odd that I would go in late and reported it. No one approached me even a single time to tell me not to hang out in there at that time of night.

Do you think there could be any long term effects to this investigation? Do you think I am on some government list somewhere?

 

[hrforme]

Do you admit that it does look suspicious? Did you ever report these times to your manager (while you were doing so)?

I do suspect the investigative notes will stay in your personnel file. Don't have a clue whether you will be on a gov't list but it is definitely odd behavior and i would suggest clearing it in the future with your manager by being upfront, even if there is a guard there. They aren't your supervisor....

 

[zddoodah]

Do you think there could be any long term effects to this investigation? Do you think I am on some government list somewhere?

You're asking anonymous strangers to engage in ignorant speculation. How is that useful?

 

[berderder]

Do you admit that it does look suspicious? Did you ever report these times to your manager (while you were doing so)?
...

No, I never told my manager. I didn't feel the need to. Yes, I admit it looked suspicious but I wish someone would have just told me they don't feel comfortable me being in there at night. There were often a couple of other employees in there while I was in there.

 

[flyingron]

There is no obligation on the government's part before investigating you. Actually, you probably come out of the investigation smelling better than you did before.

I had an amusing situation. I worked for years in an Army (SECURED) facility. Since we were computer guys, we had to work nights so we didn't impact the rank and file that worked 9-to-5 (well in our place typically 8:00-4:15). One disgruntled employee reported that we couldn't possibly be putting in our 40 hours seeing how we came and went at all hours.

Amusingly, if you come and go after 6PM or before 6AM, you have to be specifically admitted and sign the security logs, etc... Well, the investigators went back and pulled the prior three months of security logs. They came to the realization that we worked way more than 40 hours each week. Can't have that. They told the Army that they had to pay us OVERTIME. Oh, and by the way, since we worked after hours, we also were entitled to a 6% shift differential.

So the disgruntled employee didn't get what she wanted. We didn't ask for anything but we got a substantial bump in our pay.

 

[berderder]

That's pretty cool. Well hopefully if the government has eyes on me they just think I'm dumb for doing this

 

[cbg]

Strongly suggest that you either no longer do it or that you get your supervisor's okay before doing it again.