VileFoulAndEvil: the security, part 1

DumberBoss, Koodiorjapoika1 and myself are supposed to do a TotallyUnnecessaryThing on a UNIX computer:

Koodiorjatyttö (upon being handed the password): What's the username?
Koodiorjapoika1: root.
Koodiorjatyttö (doing a double take): do we create the usernames for ourselves then?
Koodiorjapoika1: No, we just run it as root. Everybody is just always using root on all the machines.
Koodiorjatyttö: This is not safe.
DumberBoss: It's OK.
Koodiorjatyttö: Why don't I make us all real usernames?
DumberBoss: Don't. Root is just fine.
Koodiorjatyttö (briefly considers hijacking the root password and making real accounts for everyone else, but thinks better of it): OK.

Five minutes later:

Koodiorjapoika1: You are right about the real accounts, but trying to start that here is like fighting with windmills.

Five more minutes later:

DumberBoss (logged on as root): How do you list directory contents in UNIX?