A few days ago, state Human Service Commissioner Rob Hofmann released some apparently damning information regarding the misuse of computers by state workers. This, in support of the Douglas Administration’s plan to spend $120,000 on software designed to prevent such activity.
He cited six cases, including some real doozies: downloading 1,000 pornographic images, running an eBay business on state time, inadvertently downloading a computer virus. Clearly, no one wants to spend their tax dollars on such malfeasance.
But wait a minute. Read the fine print.
“This is the type of behavior that we are committed to eliminating,” he said of the incidents, some of which happened in recent months and others as long as six years ago.
Six cases… in six years? If you ask me, that’s a pretty damn fine record. How many thousands of workers have had access to state computers in the last six years? Is this really a problem? Sure, there are (literally) a few bad apples, but this is no sign of an epidemic of computer abuse. Quite the opposite, in fact.
But it sure does make state workers look bad, and reinforces the stereotype of lazy (unionized) miscreants neglecting their duties and thumbing their (unionized) noses at the taxpayers. Hofmann, again:
“It is highly regrettable to potentially tarnish the fine efforts of the majority of our staff, by having to acknowledge the incredibly outlandish actions of a few employees,” he said.
Oh yeah. I bet you regret it.
Eh..who has been running this operation for the last eight years anyway?
This leaves me with impression someone in the Douglas,Dubie co-piloted admin was asleep at their own keyboards,if this has been going on for six years.
Weren’t these the common sense administrators that bless state gov. with their Republican business efficiency?
Sounds like Hofmann is rather more concerned with making his boss look good than defending the reputation of his “staff.”
It’s a bargain!
It’s just one wafer thin $20,000 per incident, plus licensing, support, and renewal fees forever into the future.
A pittance! Just because existing systems and free technology would catch the same behavior for free doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dump massive amounts of taxpayer dollars into the willing pockets of
croniescampaign contributorscompanies that rely on technologically illiterate customers.Of course the idea that no employee should ever have a moment of downtime in the office is one of the subtle subtexts of this – it’s the attitude that leads some to become irate when they see a highway crew person dripping sweat in the roasting summer sun stand for a few minutes at the side of the steaming new tar, leaning on a shovel and drinking water. There’s this assumption that anyone being paid with taxpayer dollars ceases to be human, and thus must at all times be visibly “producing” – no recovery time for hard labor, and no brain recharge time for labor that’s mentally taxing.
A lack of “down time” makes people LESS productive, and conversely, when not excessive, “goofing off” at work actually makes people more productive. Humans are not robots, and thus work differently. As complex organisms whose physical and mental systems are designed to work in a stop-and-go manner, we’re at our best when we can structure our time to accommodate our nature.
Should porn be disallowed? Absolutely. Should breaks that don’t prevent the employee from accomplishing their duties satisfactorily be disallowed? Not if you want to get the best from your employees.
Do we need to spend $120k to prevent the one person with a porn habit from viewing porn? Nope – we need to keep doing whatever was done to catch the last one – the thing that caught the culprit without costing $120k.
Think of the employees providing vital social services that could have been hired for $120K.