How personal are your passwords?

I MISS some things about big offices: The “paper jam in Zone D”, the colleague with the permanent sniffle, the awkward conversation with the boss when we both happen to be in the toilet at the same time.

One thing I don’t miss is the error message that pops up on the computer screen: “This file is locked by another user BSMITH. Do you want to open a read-only copy?”

I look at BSMITH’s desk and he has gone home. In fact BSMITH — not his real username — waltzed out of the office and now has his out-of-office reply on and it’s telling everyone to contact me.