[Cerek the Barbaric]

State worker fired after spying on boss playing solitaire


The Associated Press
6/28/2004, 6:53 p.m. CT


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- A state employee was fired after he put software known as "spyware" on his boss's computer and determined the supervisor was spending much of his work time playing solitaire.

A hearing officer with the Alabama Personnel Department heard the appeal Monday of former Department of Transportation employee Vernon Blake. The State Personnel Board is expected to rule on whether to reinstate Blake at its Aug. 18 meeting.

Blake told the Montgomery Advertiser that last October he put a free software program called WinSpy on the computer of George Dobbs, assistant chief of DOT's Right of Way Bureau. The software recorded what was on Dobbs' computer at random intervals.

More than 70 percent of WinSpy's 414 images show games of solitaire, he said, a fact he brought to the attention of the agency's senior management.

The department reprimanded Dobbs in a Jan. 21 letter that referred to "a significant amount of time using your ALDOT personal computer (PC) to play video games." Blake, who was the department's network administrator, was fired.

The letter to Dobbs also states, "While your work ethic and your production are above reproach, management level personnel must be mindful not to compromise their ability to manage subordinates."

Dobbs referred questions about the case to a DOT lawyer.

"That conduct of placing software on a supervisor's computer to monitor the supervisor without authority or permission is very serious conduct that ... the Department of Transportation could not allow," said the agency's chief counsel, Jim Ippolito.

Blake claims his status as the department's network administrator gave him the authority to monitor Dobbs' computer.

In his appeal to the personnel board, Blake included a copy of Gov. Bob Riley's Feb. 3 "State of the State" speech in which the governor referred to Alabama's "opportunity to make this the most accountable, most cost-effective and most efficient state government in the nation."

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I heard about this on the radio a couple of days ago. My first thought was "Well of course he got fired if he installed spyware on his boss PC", then the story went on to reveal that the employee had verified that his boss was spending a lot of "work time" playing Solitaire.

I have to agree - at least in theory - that the employee's position of network administrator does give him an implied right to view the activities of ALL the PC's in his company to see what they are being used for.

I think it is a clear sign of "politic business as usual" that the supervisor (who is undoubtedly making quite a bit more than the network administrator) was reprimanded for playing Solitaire on the clock - but the employee who caught the transgression was fired, because his actions are considered a form of insubordination.

All I can say is that it must be nice to be the boss and have immunity from being fired for playing games on the companies computer. [img]graemlins/dontknowaboutyou.gif[/img]