Alabama IT Whistleblower Fired For Spyware

chalker writes "Vernon Blake, an IT sysadmin for the Alabama Department Of Transportation, wanted to get evidence that his boss spent the majority of his time playing solitaire on his computer. Since emails to higher up supervisors were ignored, he installed Win-Spy, which grabbed screenshots several times per day over a period of 7 months. 70% of the resulting screenshots showed an active game of solitaire, and another 20% showed his boss checking the stock market. When he reported this to superiors, he was fired, even though he had 21 years of service in the position. His boss got a reprimand to 'stop playing games'. He is appealing his termination in court since he claims it was part of his job description to 'confirm and document' computer misuse for ALDOT. His complete story is here."

Comments

That's 90%

[Platinum Dragon]

Should we ask what the other 10% consisted of?

Wait

[Anonymous Coward]

They have computers in Alabama? When did this happen?

Re:Wait

[iamdrscience]

Yeah, they've got them, but they're not so good at numbers.

Re:Wait

[babbage]

Oh they have plenty of computers in Alabama. The problem is that because most computers don't ship with TV cards hard-wired to watch football games, televangelists, and Fox News, the locals don't see why anyone would want to use one unless they were some kind of godless heathen communist.

As a godless heathen communist who studied computer science at a university in Alabama, this was just fine with me :-)

Topical comic

[Anonymous Coward]

From the site. Hehe.

Solitaire

[jdc180]

Surprising thing was none of the screenshots were of solitaire crashing

Spyware.

[Daleks]

I wonder how the guy was caught. Oh, and there's a picture of a spy in the lower right hand corner.

Thats what the boss gets.......

[ErichTheWebGuy]

... for using Windows. Bet if he was using Linux and playing games (games on Linux are better anyway) he would have been fine. I'm pretty sure the only reason why I haven't been fired yet is because I use Linux. ctrl+tab moves me to my other desktop, which conviently is running vi with the latest version of our app, and I am sure that I have no spyware installed.

Arthur - If you're reading this -- just kidding! Otherwise, I am completely serious.

Sounds like a case of

[JoeLinux]

Not-so-mean-BOFH vs. PHB. Let's get ready to rumble!!!

Yes! That's perfect!

[JThundley]

That would be the best course of action, because then the lazy bastard would have to ask somebody to put Solitaire back on the computer. Or he would go and download his own little games and fuck up Windows with spyware.

Had this same sort of problem

[FluffyWhiteBunny]

I had this same sort of problem at work. But instead of trying to prove that the employee was spending innordinate amounts of time playing solitare we would just go in and change all the windows shortcuts to point random places. My favorite was to have it open mspaint with a screenshot of a new game of solitaire.

90% of the time the screen was blue...

[noidentity]

...but the screen capture utility didn't capture that for some reason.

Re:maybe he was fired...

[Wes Janson]

We're talking about tax money here; the citizens of Alabama deserve better


Are you really sure about that?

Disclaimer: I have nothing against Alabama, this was a joke.

Re:Everyone knows

[Anonymous Coward]

What's this URL for?
http://www.dot.state.al.us/Bureau/Right_of_W ay/Con tacts/employeelist.htm

Oh look, I do believe it has George Dobb's phone number on it. :-) That's 334-242-6188

Slashdot away!

Suggested voicemail message: "We are watching you. Stop playing games on your computer and get back to work."

Brilliant.

[rawstory]

Sounds like the government is functioning perfectly!

Re:couldn't he just....

[Anonymous Coward]

C:\> more test.c
#include <stdio.h>

void main( )
{
for( int x = 0; x < 1000; x++ ) {
print( "GET TO WORK, YOU LAZY FUCK!" );
}
getch();
}
C:\> bcc test.c sol.exe
Borland C Compiler v5
Compiling... DONE!
C:\> delete C:\Windows\System32\sol.exe
C:\> copy C:\sol.exe C:\Windows\System32

- Seth

Re:couldn't he just....

[l810c]

delete solitary from his boss's computer?

How about creating a custom solitaire that Loses Every Time. The boss would become frustrated. Seething in anger he would blurt it out at status meetings, thus outing himself.

In Soviet Russia....

[clintonogamy]

Oh nevermind.

Re:couldn't he just....

[Anonymous Coward]

Well you've got to understand that in the interest of innovation, Soliate has now been integrated into the OS.

Re:Everyone knows

[Abalamahalamatandra]

"If his boss was such a poor performer, his failures would have made themselves evident over time."

You've never worked in government, have you?

Re:couldn't he just....

[DAldredge]

And to think that I go moded to hell today because I said that Gnome was easier to configure than windows.

Re:maybe he was fired...

[theguywhosaid]

little guys: 3
fucktwit suits: 0

shouldnt the little guys get a score multiplier? i mean, if every one of the little guys and suits got canned or left, it would be:

little guys: 7
fuckwit suits: 9834

Re:Everyone knows

[Guppy06]

"We are watching you. Stop playing games on your computer and get back to work."

And stop playing with yourself!
<REAL GENIUS/>

Re:couldn't he just....

[Pedersen]

Better...

1. note currently chosen screensaver
2. change active screensaver to marquee
3. change settings for marquee to read Get back to work!
4. change active screensaver to what it was before
5. adjust solitaire shortcut to point to marquee.scr
6. giggle with glee at the thought of the expression on the moron's face when next they play

Re:YOU CALL THAT

[Dwonis]

In the spirit of true Windows development, you need to set up a scheduled task to continually re-delete sol.exe. ;-)

A Funnier Solution

[sessamoid]

A more entertaining solution to the "whistleblower"'s problem would have been to replace his bosses version of Solitaire with one that looks identical, but only deals non-winnable hands.

Re:Whistleblower?

[Elwood P Dowd]

Here on Slashdot, many people post and read articles from work. This is claimed as "Okay," because we're getting our jobs done regardless, right?

Huh. Iduno about that. I'd say that the amount of time I spend on /. while at work is completely inexcusable.

Re:Everyone knows

[tzanger]

Whoa... It really IS God!

Re:I call Bull on this one

[Anonymous Coward]

welcome to Alalbama...where the movie Deliverance is a love story.

So what have we learned here today ?

[Dave21212]

So what have we learned here today...

Half the state employees are playing Solitaire or the stock market, and the other half are screwing around spying on their coworkers ?

Tax dollars at work ;)