Betrayal

In one way or another you have or definitely will experience betrayal in your life. Does it mean then that you should stop trusting? Maybe.

Just recently we experienced a betrayal in our lives by a close family member. Now this person is not a blood relative, nevertheless is still a very close member of the family. Well until now that is.

In good faith we had done everything to support this person for over 6 years, during her darkest days of fear, anxiety and ill-health to the point, we are very pleased to say, that she can totally look after herself now and her life is back on track.

I prefer not to reveal the person’s identity and will try and describe the incident.

We offered support and guidance on using new technology, in this case an iPad, which we supplied. It was one of our old ones, so it was fine and in fairness were paid a small amount for it, so happy days.

We cleared the iPad of all old data so it could be set up as new. We also activated family sharing from one of our accounts. And if you are familiar with family sharing, the person that has activated it, in this case us, allows other family members to make purchases through the app store using our credit card. We can also share photos, music and some files.

We are not able to see what the other person is doing, nothing, this is not a screen sharing process.

But…

A bank staff member, a library staff member and a printer supplier all told her that anyone who has installed family sharing can see everything the other person is doing on their iPad. Untrue, not blaming them, but they are untrained, uninformed and negligent in giving that advice. I’ve even spoken to Apple and they confirm what I already knew.

This family member then bought a new iPad to make sure any spying could be avoided.

Happy trusting!

Michael de Groot

Big Brother

Another celebrity version of reality show Big Brother, here in the UK, has finished. Phew, I’m glad that’s over. I always wonder how I would fair being locked up in a house for a month with complete strangers who would eventually get on my nerves.

I guess it’s no different to working with your colleagues, who are at the end of the day complete strangers and usually when you work in an office together you have to find a way to get on.

They say you spend more time with your work colleagues then you do with your family, that is if you work in an office and not from home of course.

But very few companies invest in getting strangers who are thrown together to perform well together.

I was part of a team building exercise, doing some freelancing. All I had to do was facilitate some in-door team building games.

Within seconds I would witness how participants would forget about all their inhibitions and start accusing colleagues for not playing the game correctly. When the going gets tough we return to type and think of our own survival.

Whether it’s Big Brother or working in teams, we can all be a little more considerate of working with and interacting with others who are not family.

Happy interacting!

Michael de Groot