Congressman seeks ban to stop federal employees from watching porn all day

[FriendlyFire]

Congressman seeks ban to stop federal employees from watching porn all day

In May, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general disclosed that a senior-level employee was caught spending as much as six hours of his day looking at porn. The IG found that the employee had downloaded and viewed more than 7,000 pornographic files. The Justice Department is investigating further for possible prosecution.

Four months later, the employee has not been fired and is still collecting government pay, Environment & Energy Publishing reported last week.

That prompted Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) to introduce a bill the day Congress left town to make it a uniform federal government law that employees cannot look at porn at work.

Many agencies, including the EPA, have such rules, but Meadows says they are not enforced. EPA’s spokeswoman Liz Purchia confirmed that the porn-watching employee is still employed but on leave, but could not comment further because of the ongoing investigation.

“It’s not just casual porn viewing, but hours and hours of unproductive time doing things we shouldn’t be condoning. There seems to be a need to reinforce agency rules that might be in place, but not enforced,” Meadows said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...federal-employees-from-watching-porn-all-day/

Yes there should be a law on government/public employees doing unproductive time wasting. I think congressional computers should be searched for porn first ! anyone with history of porn in there browser history should be fired. Like Republican Senator vitter who used prostitutes ... wait

 

[bhavv]

Seriously? If you look at porn on a minimum wage desk job, you get fired on the spot. How do these people get away with it for so long?

I want a job where I can just sit at a computer and play Civ all day. Preferably working from home.

 

[Goodfella]

They were talking about this on fox last month and it was a non-issue then and it still is. Just republicans trying to score teahad points by making the federal gov look bad.

 

[CavLancer]

Its a bad idea. If they stop they might go back to work, and then where would we be?

 

[Goodfella]

Could a controversy be any more formulaic? Two things conservatives hate: the federal gov't and porn. There are so many government employees it was basically inevitable that the two would collide at some point. This is like a gag from the Onion or Colbert.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Seriously? If you look at porn on a minimum wage desk job, you get fired on the spot. How do these people get away with it for so long?

I want a job where I can just sit at a computer and play Civ all day. Preferably working from home.

Republican appointee ?
EPA is investigating because they want to press criminal charges.

The identity of the employee—who makes $120,000 a year—has not been disclosed, but everyone seems to be operating on the assumption that said employee is a man, which is a fair assumption.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...with_two_to_six_hour_per_day_habit_still.html

 

[gay_Aleks]

If said employee was a woman, and she was watching gay porn, would this have been an issue?

 

[PhroX]

While there might be an issue with a federal employee not actually doing work for 6 hours of the day, the fact that he was spending the time watching porn, as opposed to, I dunno, browsing CivFanatics like me, is irrelevant.

 

[Perfection]

Goddamn idiot, this what your smartphone and tablet is for. Any idiot who'd use their work computer is incompetent and should be canned.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Watching porn on tablet/smartphone sounds ineffective. If anything, this might be one of the few spheres of life that the Feds might not be entirely incompetent.

Some say.

 

[warpus]

Four months later, the employee has not been fired and is still collecting government pay, Environment & Energy Publishing reported last week.

I'm sorry, but if your company or agency is too incompetent to figure out how to fire someone for watching 6 hours of porn every day at work.. After even 4 months.. Then you have much bigger problems to deal with that an anti-porn law just won't be able to fix.

 

[bhsup]

That is almost assuredly because of a union, Warpus.

 

[warpus]

I work at a place where unions rule supreme too, but if someone was caught watching so much porn every day.. and was even downloading it. They'd be gone in an instant, unless they have blackmail which can implicate the president and other members of the upper echelons of the organization in some sort of a creepy orgy. And even then I bet they'd just end up in jail instead.

And I say that knowing that it is hard to fire someone over here. It doesn't happen often.. You need a very very good reason. DOWNLOADING PORN AND WATCHING IT FOR 6 HOURS EVERY DAY IS ONE OF THOSE REASONS. (I'm not mad, I'm just trying to highlight the essence of my point)

 

[Farm Boy]

Places with good medical benefits and social care, the government usually being better than most private companies, also sometimes get snarled up when somebody gets caught doing something like this and their response is immediately "I have a problem. Is there treatment for me?" At which point, if we can consider sex addiction, or any number of things to be potentially legitimate, watching pornography for 6 hours a day from your work computer seems to fit the bill as a self-destructive compulsion at least prima facie, doesn't it?

 

[warpus]

Places with good medical benefits and social care, the government usually being better than most private companies, also sometimes get snarled up when somebody gets caught doing something like this and their response is immediately "I have a problem. Is there treatment for me?" At which point, if we can consider sex addiction, or any number of things to be potentially legitimate, watching pornography for 6 hours a day from your work computer seems to fit the bill as a self-destructive compulsion at least prima facie, doesn't it?

Good point actually, I hadn't considered that. Things could unfold in a similar fashion here, and something similar actually did happen to a colleague of mine.. sort of. It wasn't porn related, but essentially the organization pushed him into rehab, after branding him as someone who has issues with ____. He went to rehab and we never saw him again. They had to continue paying him for 2 years after he left.

But is this what is happening with this particular person? Is he getting "help" for his "problem"? Are they holding onto him because he's getting counselling or whatever?

Or does their bureaucracy prevent them from firing him for other reasons? That's what I had assumed.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I'd say the problem here is not that the guy got caught watching so much porn...the problem is that he did no work and no one noticed. And without question, when they finally get rid of him the government will feel some need to replace him despite the fact that he really didn't serve any purpose.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Probably they were too busy spying on citizens of America. Remember, everyone is spying!

 

[Terxpahseyton]

My guess is that the guy has not been fired so far because he uses addiction to porn as a defense which may be viewed as an illness and from where I am from there are laws against firing public servants for being ill.
In Germany for instance there was a case of a policeman who didn't show up for work for a year and got drunk all the time but was not fired. For the reason I just gave. Instead he was put on paid vacation.

 

[Farm Boy]

Technically if you're considering such an illness as a Real Thing, it's not so much a "defense" as an explanation and appeal for assistance/treatment. Which a lot of people are going to consider an inappropriate or unreasonable level of compassion.

 

[Cutlass]

That is almost assuredly because of a union, Warpus.

Senior level employees aren't in unions. But they are covered by civil service work rules. And the same rules that protect people from being fired for political reasons and patronage also protect those who aren't doing their job.