Why does IT send fake phishing emails that stress us out?
Simulated phishing tests interrupt the workday and trigger unnecessary stress, especially when they use manipulative lures like teacher appreciation emails. Punishing employees with mandatory quizzes just for deleting or marking a test as spam stops people from focusing on their actual work.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1No longer opening any emails from the district as a safety precautionDid this help you?
- 2Deleting the emails instead of reporting themDid this help you?
- 3Ignoring district emailsDid this help you?
- 4Practicing malicious compliance by refusing to open any email from an uncertain senderDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“But it stresses them out, it stresses me out.”source ↗
“It's like a little quiz, in the middle of working, where the district just decides to stress you out and see if you'll click something and if you do you get a finger wagging.”source ↗
“I get the point, but it's just another point of stress that isn't necessary.”source ↗
“Anyone tired of the e-mails sent out by IT regarding Phishing?”source ↗
“What really pisses me off is that if you just delete the email instead of reporting it, they still make you take a quiz or pd about phishing”source ↗
“My district did something similar in a previous year. I didn't fall for it, but it was extremely tone-deaf. It was a teacher appreciation e-mail during teacher appreciation week.”source ↗
“I got signed up for phishing training for marking one as spam. Like what? I hate them too.”source ↗
Where this came up
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