Signing the Official Secrets Act is a joke. No, really! I was thinking over the documents I signed when I started work with my current employer and one stands out as being nothing more than complete bureaucratic nonsense: the declaration of confidentiality – often referred to in popular culture as ‘signing the Official Secrets Act’.
Now, please don’t misunderstand me in thinking that I don’t hold discretion and confidentiality to be an important behaviour for the position I hold, but having to declare before a manager that you have read and understood the summary of the Official Secrets Act provided to you is just silly – for three reasons:
1) You are signing the document to confirm that you have read and understand The Official Secrets Acts and the implications thereof whereas in actuality, without prior homework, you are only reading a summary (albeit in good faith) of the Act of Parliament.
2) The document is not properly formatted for it to have much standing in law. I’ll leave that one there!
3) And finally, The Official Secrets Act is a LAW! You do not need to sign a frivolous document, barely worth the paper that it is printed on, to agree to be bound by a LAW. A law applies to everyone regardless of whither or not they have read it or understand it. I’ve not read that law thingy about not murdering people, nor have I signed a piece of paper to say I understand the implications of said law, but guess what? It still applies to me.
That is all, rant over.
Image by Steve Woods.
October 14th, 2009 at 11.29am
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