Slashdot Mirror
State-Sponsored Solitaire?
jefu writes "According to this story the state of North Carolina may be considering banning solitaire on state owned machines. It seems that state workers are now perceived as having replaced leaning on brooms with playing solitaire or minesweeper. The story provides coverage of both sides of the issue, noting that playing solitaire (or other games) may provide workers with a way to burn off some stress, but that this kind of activity is likely to be perceived as time wasting. My favorite bit (especially as April 15th draws ever closer) is where the author notes that fifty percent of the time an IRS employee is on the computer they are playing games, shopping online or gambling."
It sounds to me like the real problem is that government workers aren't able to hit Alt-Tab fast enough. Once we address that, then the problem will be neatly swept under the rug.
I'm a big tall mofo.
It's only a matter of time before they ban Slashdot.
... and with this regulation fell the last obstacle to Linux acceptance in North Carolina.
I admit it. I have had to delete Gnome Games and Windows Solitaire/Minesweeper/Freecell/Hearts from my machines at work. I just couldn't get any work done before.
where the author notes that fifty percent of the time an IRS employee is on the computer they are playing games, shopping online or gambling
Would that mean the IRS employs 50% too many workers?
All I can say is that it's a good thing Windows doesn't come with Tetris.
... work there?
As soon as I worked out the cheat that shows a colour changing pixel in the top corner of the screen I lost all interest in Minesweeper. Most my friends now believe I am psychic because I can 'sense' whether a square has a mine under it or not :)
http://www.sandstorming.com
I can see it now: employees sneaking in 52-card decks into the office and playing solitaire on their desk. Boss walks buy, they quickly throw their keyboard on top of it and get back to work. Gotta "burn off stress" somehow.
I just hope Minesweeper addicts don't resort to planting landmines in the office to get their fix.
fifty percent of the time an IRS employee is on the computer they are playing games, shopping online or gambling.
So, if we ban Solitaire, the IRS employees will probably spend more time gambling. Whose wise idea was that, I wonder?
Slightly OT but... Where I attend they have locked down the Windows machines to the point where you can't do much of anything. Only professors/administrators can use the floppy drive. Mspaint, Solitaire, and Firefox are amoung the banned software (they claim this software is abused). Thankfully, the admin has is using less restriction on my account because he realizes mspaint and firefox can be useful, and not just for abuse circumventing the porn-blocker. I realize there is not likely anything productive to do with Solitaire, but banning of software in general is extremely irritating when you don't have your laptop with you.
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
Tax returns due in the United States.
Man I was playing Solitare and Minesweeper back in tha day! Day meaning 1995 or so, but the point is, its time for those of us /.ers to acend and transcend. Theres plenty of flash games on the internet that provides way more fun, not to mention it can be easily concealed by clicking on your toolbar to show your fileing those TPS reports.
"But research done by the IRS has shown that over 50 percent of the time an IRS employee goes on a computer, he or she also hooks up to the Internet to shop, gamble or play games."
Anyone else wondering where this "research" was published?
Leaving aside the snobbery and bigotry of that "leaning on brooms" comment, this proposal is seeing some discussion here in North Carolina. Most that I've heard and read correctly points to this as a management issue, not something that merits legislation.
:-)
That is, if an employee is not meeting expectations because he is spending too much time trolling the net, that's his fault, not the Internet's. The same problem would exist if he spent too much time doing crossword puzzles are talking to his girlfriend on the phone. The core problem is the employee not meeting expectations, not what he's doing to divert his attention.
As for Solitaire, don't install it, OK? And if a manager thinks someone is spending too much time playing online games or whatever, ask the IT guys to verify it and then do a bit of "counseling".
Now, if this guy really wanted to enhance productivity, he'd propose outlawing watching NCAA basketball playoffs at work. Heh.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Here's an editorial from today on this very subject.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Heckler/Lies-damn-lies- and-statistics/2005/03/20/1111253883481.html?
I call every statistic a lie until I see the raw sample figures and how they were gathered. There should be an international standard on how stats are gathered and quoted. I'm sick to fucking death of statistic manipulation. Although in this particular case I don't really care and would not at all be surprised if it was true.
We have a cartoon on the door of the IT room that shows some users playing solitaire on their desks with actual decks of cards. The caption reads "Our systems are down, we have to do everything manually."
at sourceforge will be popular =)
I assume that there are dozens of online solitaire games avaiable. Unless they take the extra step of blocking all game related websites, the whole thing is pointless.
You are overanalyzing the problem. All you have to do is have the official poilicy of "no games" and then you are free to fire someone playing at work. OK, maybe they have to get a warning first.
The "no games" policy should be accompanied with a "no unauthorized installs" policy.
I have worked at a lot of companies, and one common theme among them is almost always, "Let's get rid of the games." As a sysadmin, I've actually been the one tasked with implementing it. However...
I think these policies are, in a word, stupid. If someone is going to waste time, they're going to waste time. If it's not on a game of Solitaire, it will be on some other non-work activity. The fact is that you cannot command a person to work for eight (if they're lucky) solid hours. Or as Scott Kirwin put it in the article, "Managers [have] lost sight that workers are real people, not robots."
Every time I've been asked to delete the games off of machines, I've expressed extreme disapproval. I've tried to explain until I'm blue in the face that it will not increase productivity. I've tried to explain that if you treat employees like they're four years old by taking away their toys, it will only cause resentment and a resulting LOSS of productivity. I've tried to point out that small Solitaire breaks (or any other mindless activity) actually help a lot of people get back into a more productive mindset going forward. I've also tried to point out that games such as Solitaire help people new to computers learn their way around. For example, it taught my mother, who had only used DOS-based accounting software, how to use a mouse. Sure, it sounds simple to you, but keep in mind that she had no idea what left-clicking, dragging-and-dropping, minimizing and maximizing, etc. were, but she was up to speed within a few minutes thanks to Solitaire.
But in general, all that stuff makes no difference to management. Since companies have layed off and outsourced to the point where they can't function any more, all that matters is that we have to be productive 24x7. Barring that, all that matters is that we have to LOOK productive 24x7.
So stupid...
CN, anti-smoking crusader
filmcritic.com - Movie reviews on Internet time
Oh come on! This is the government we are talking about. In order for each orginization to get more funding, they need a reason to spend it. Either hiring more unnessary employees, or increasing the hourly wage (not going to happen as it raises a red flag).
I've had friends work for the US gov in IT. From what they've told me, it basically a Union. Once your in the game, you actually have to TRY and get fired. It's totally the opposite of the corporate word.
And did I mention, your tax dollars are paying for these scams?
Life is not for the lazy.
Marxian theories have, on the contrary, largely proven correct since his death. Marx did not argue "for" violent overthrow, but rather that violent attempts to overthrow capitalism were at his time of writing inevitable - and therefore not worth arguing "for" or "against".
ceci n'est pas un sig
fifty percent of the time an IRS employee is on the computer they are playing games, shopping online or gambling."
Are these IRS employees paying the full amount of the tax due on their gambling winnings? It is considered income, after all.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
More hours =? more productivity?
I know that it's bad to lose work time into games, but... really, what's worse? A worker who clears up his mind by playing sol 5 minutes, or a bored and tired worker who PRETENDS to be working but his productivity is actually half what it should be?
Bureaucracy...
I'm not playing Solataire... I'm studying the Terrorism Deck of Cards...
Looking for:
M'Balz Es-Hari
Graabir Boubi, and
Haid D'Salaami
Hous Bin Pharteen, his cousin I-Bin Pharteen, and their close companion I-Zheet M'Drurz
Shaif Hirboush.. Al-Suq Akweer.. Mustaf Herod Apyur Poupr. I hope I got that right! Awan Afuqya.. Yul Strokheet Al-Wauch.. Apul Madeek - who we believe will be targeting adult bookstores sometime in the near future. And this man, the notorious Yuliqa M'Diq, A.K.A. Uwana M'Diq, A.K.A. Usuqa M'Diq. Uh.. thank you, that is all... [SNL]
that Solitare and Minesweeper are intergrated with the OS, and removing them can cripple the OS. This is the type of thing that happens at Microsoft, apparently. Microsoft says it would not be possible to make a version of Windows without the Solitare and Minesweeper applications.
;)
Ah well, if Solitare and Minesweeper are removed, what will stop government employees from installing other games?
You boss, just wants to challenge you to a Doom 3 Deathmatch anyway.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
These are IRS employees. Almost none of them are ever doing anything you want them to be doing, except occasionally the people who change the ink cartridges on the refund-check-printing machines. The more time they spend playing solitaire, the better.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Ahh, memories...
1995, I was a contractor at an unnamed nuclear powerplant in Maryland. Windows 3.1 and all the BSD's we could stand. Solitaire was all the rage, and Management caught on.
One day the Solitaire shortcut doesn't work anymore, and a memo is circulated that "Game playing is bad...waste of resources...disciplinary action..." Stopepd us in our tracks? No (I mean, we are engineers for Chrissake)
Look for Sol.exe on machine...gone.
Search for "Solitaire" in shared drive...hmmm...that looks like some kind of script file in the root of the Network G: drive. Open it up - so it is: it checks user's machine at login and erases sol.exe. There is also a log in the directory: every instance of Solitaire being played on machines connected to that network for the last couple of months.
Solution to problem #1: reinstall Sol.exe, rename sol1.exe. No more logging.
Fun with the existing log:
"Hey Frank! (da boss)"
"What"
"You were playing Solitaire at exactly 1425 on March 3."
"Uh, how would you know that?"
"Big Brother is watching, Frank."
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
For some people, it's more critical - my department used to have a secretary who played solitaire a lot. Her most important jobs were to keep track of the managers' appointments and answer their phones, and when she'd done any available paperwork, "answering their phones" meant "sitting around being bored", occasionally interrupted by people calling.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Let the IRS play all the games they want. The more games they play the less time they have to audit me.
That's really not the purpose of online gambling websites. In real casinos, you need to have some people winning to generate enough excitement to keep the other suckers busy losing, but in online casinos, that doesn't happen, so you only need to let the suckers win often enough to keep them steadily losing money while they hope for the next big win. And gambling losses are only deductable up to the amount of your winnings.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I can safely say that I don't think this would fix anything. People are creative. If it's not solitaire, it -will- be something else. I read one comment that said something along the lines of 'once you're in [state gov't], you actually have to TRY and get fired'. I believe that too. I know quite a few people that could be more way more productive than they currently are. But it's not just the games. It's the phone, or the email, or the internet, or the conversations in the hall. Passing this bill will only make people spend more time doing those other things. Jimmy
In any work environment, whether private sector or public, there is slack time. What would be the macro-economic impact of eliminating all that slack time from the workplace? Mass unemployment? Cheaper goods and services? A shorter workweek?
What would be the impact on the distribution of wealth?. What would be the impact on the quality of life, considering that most of us have to go to work most of the days of our lives?
You agreed to pay me such and such an amount to do such and such each week. Now you find out that I can do it in ten hours, when you thought that it would take me 40, so you want to punish me by reducing me to 10 hours pay? You just eliminated any incentive I had to be efficient.
What if the worker is a programmer?
Sometimes she or she will be waiting for a compile to finish or for the Java Virtual Machine to start up.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
Check this out,
Setting is a place I used to work at, a gov't place. We were contractors installing and administrating the network and servers.
A coworker and myself had to go to the 2nd floor of this other building, to fix one of the fiber optic drops (They ran 10mbps fiber to the desktop, we had to remove the included Intel 10/100 NICs and replace them with $400 10baseFL nics).
We came in, everything was call. But we had forgotten a tool. The workers were mostly quiet, as the cubes didn't allow us to see them. The old barrick buildings turned offices had a spacious and hollow feel on the 2nd floors. It was my coworkers turn to go get the piece or part we had forgotten. So hung tight as my coworker left.
The minute the door shut and his footsteps were heard thumping down the stairs, I could hear the mouse clicks increase. Immediately I could hear the Space Cadet pinball game from multiple computers. It was fairly funny. As my coworkers footsteps were heard coming up the stairs, all of the game noises went away as the games were minimized.
I said really loudly "DOUDE, you MISSED ALL THE ACTION"
Many gov't jobs = welfare/wealth redistribution.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
Following their success boosting productivity by banning brooms...
--
make install -not war
Before: users spend x hours playing solitaire.
After: users spend x hours trying to get solitaire working again.
All my management courses drilled into my head the idea that you can only expect six hours of productivity from an employee per day. I don't see any point in fighting it. Why piss them off in the process?
Maybe in the private sector, but in government (as the article discusses), it is extremely hard to get someone fired. Hearings, evidence, the prying eyes of watchdog groups...
Some people call it government waste, others call it job security.
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
Q. How many people work at Your Government Department?
A. About a third.
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
J
Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit.
I'm at home, cooking dinner. But I do read /. at work, though I wouldn't say I slack off 50% of the time. Besides, is it wrong to slack off for four hours in a day if you produce more in the other four hours than people who 'worked' eight hours that day? Note that thats a drastic example, but it's not far from the truth sometimes. And I should know, I'm a state employee.
Jimmy
That gives me a cunning idea.. re-write a solitaire clone and distribute it on all your companies machines, have it produce such a statistic and send it to a server, keeping the employee's name tied to each statistic is optional depending on local privacy laws and how much fun you want to have..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Inefficient companies like KBR exist because of the government. It's the gov outsourcing their lack of productivity. There's not enough competition and too many political contributions to force KBR to be efficient.
I think the government has done a lot of good things. But it's only 'efficient' compared to corporations when corporations would require massive redundancy of huge systems (Three internets? Three highway systems?) to foster competition.
And yeah, gov. funding helps to develop new technologies. It takes a gov to make a phone system. But in situations where the government has to compete with several industries in competition with one another (say fedex vs. the post office) it's pretty consistently cheaper for the gov to farm out their work to the private (but not monopolitic) company.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Time for MS to remove solitare, and sell it as a stripped down version of XP for buisnesses and state/federal employees to use.
:(){
Paluminum.net
In these days where I get a call in the middle of the night to disable x part of the system while they run Y process or when I get called Saturday morning because Z office can't print, if I take a 1/2 hour to check out things on the web on Slashdot or whatever....that makes up for all those 10-15 minute things I get asked to do after hours. If I end up dialing in and working on something for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night or on the weekend, I tell the boss, hey I am taking off early because I did this and he says sure. I am flexible....the company beter be to. If I have to leave early to go to my kids soccer practice or to watch his game but you need me to do X at 2 am....well, you better be cool with me leaving for the soccer game. Having unlimited net access and the ability to install programs not sanctioned or supported by our PC/Network support lets me get my job done or lets me cool my jets before tapping off that nasty e-mail to the idiot who can't unjam his own printer. Talk to the idiots I constantly have to go spoon feed and get them to work better and I may have more time to do real work.
Also, you want me to do remote support, BUY ME A LAPTOP. I spent my hard earned money on my machines, they are NOT to be used for my work. It's not like I am a independent contractor and have to pay for my own stuff. Oh and don't complain if I have images or other non work software on it either. You want me to do the support and take it home, then you better let me do what I want to do with it, within reason of course. You have my promise there will be no kiddie porn on it too. Start getting uppity and my laptop and my cell phone just may not make it with me on my next business trip.
There's no way you, the manager, does work all 8 of those hours either. IN fact, most managers are worse than employees or at least the same. Managers are constantly checking the stocks and the damn NCAA tourney or planning their next "business" trip to Las Vegas...shyeah. Take it easy on the employees, and when you really need them to do that extra 8 hours on Saturday, they just might say sure, I had nothing planned.
Gorkman
Some people aren't paid by how much the do, but being there to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done.
e.g. Firemen.
Granted, firemen are usually municipal not state workers. But they have lots of goof-off activities at the station to fight boredom.
Gee, nothing else to do since they took our T.V. and foosball away. Let's wash the shiny trucks AGAIN!
Face it, that time you're SMSing your wife and doing crossword puzzles is time you're stealing from your employer.
.
As a manager, I have a lot of light to shed on this subject.
Essentially, every time we call in an "efficiency expert" who advises us to cut back on the number of breaks employees get, I shrug it off. An employer with any experience at all knows better than to count productivity simply in "man-hours." Man-hours of work are little more than a theory figure for comparison purposes, but they don't have any real value. When I try to weigh employee productivity, my equation isn't simply "ManHoursWorked/ManHoursPossible". It's something more like "ManHoursWorked*WorkDonePerHour/WorkDonePossible"
Of course, the real equation isn't THAT simple either, but it does say a lot. If I'm a fun-nazi to all my employees, all it does is create general resentment toward both myself and the job. Unhappy employees have a MUCH larger tendancy to do poorly at work, and slack off even more when I'm not watching. On the other hand, if I'm somewhat lenient about my policy, letting my employees take breaks when they feel it's necessary, they're happy and tend to get more work done in the time they work. End result, I have more more work done at the end of the day. (Which of course makes my salary go up every couple years, so it works out well for me too.) If someone tells me that my employees are "stealing" time from me, I laugh and don't worry about it, because the time they DO put in is much more valuable.
It has for some time been obvious to me that government bureaucracy is the *real* welfare program in America. It's a jobs program for people who can't get work in the private sector.
My favorite bit (especially as April 15th draws ever closer) is where the author notes that fifty percent of the time an IRS employee is on the computer they are playing games, shopping online or gambling.
Isn't that a good thing?!
Considering that the IRS is far more likely to investigate/harass poor or average-income taxpayers as opposed to the rich, I see them wasting their time as a plus.
Now, if we could only spread this idle time-wasting idea to the Pentagon, maybe Iraqis and other people who are under the thumb of the empire could breath a little easier...
Perhaps Solitaire is a blessing. Imagine if instead the IRS had nothing to do. They might get bored and start doing an audit on YOU!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Pretty sure its just the Federal Wire Act, and even thats somewhat a grey area on legality.
The IRS, well so far as I know, they just want your money whether you be crack dealer, bookie, or online gambler. I'm pretty sure its set up so they wont report you to other arms of govt.
Some of us have the coveted job of taking all the data on paper tax forms and typing it into the computers. I assure you, none of us in data entry have time to make a phone call, let alone play solitaire. I'm hoping for another dot com bubble so I can get a salary job playing air hockey.
This remembers me of an old joke.
FWIW in certain jurisdiction law enforcement is considered "on duty" at all times, hence the requirement to carry concealed weapons when not "at work". They do have days off and vacations and are free to leave the jurisdiction.