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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?
... 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?
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...
Agreed, but I'd like to introduce a slight cautionary note. For some jobs I simply disbelieve that it is possible to be productive 100% of the day for 100% of all working days. I always love these productivity studies which say "600,000 man days of work are lost to <daft activity x> every year, employers say <daft activity x> must be banned from the workplace to ensure productivity rises."
Which, of course, it doesn't because 600,000 man days of work are now being 'lost' by the employees switching to <daft activity y> instead. That 600,000 days was an illusion - the productivity was never there to be had, in some jobs it's impossible for people to work as if they were machines. I including programming in this by the way.
I don't play games at work, but I certainly browse the web and spend some time talking to my wife over SMS messages. In days when desktop internet access wasn't common, I'd do crosswords at lunchtime or go for coffee breaks. Granted some of the figures mentioned sound extreme, but still - 100% of everybody's time isn't always a realistic target.
Cheers,
Ian
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
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
I've been saying this to no avail for years now. I wish someone would start listening.
I get so frustrated at management trying to pass off their responsibilites to the IT folks at companies. Simple example: Internet content filtering. I work at a large (Fortune 100) company, and I handle second-level support calls. One common theme that generates hundreds of calls a month (it is multinational) is, "I need access to such-and-such a site for legitimate business purposes, but it says that it's blocked due to (whatever reason the content filtering company had classified it)." So we have to get on a directly-connected machine, check out the site, verify that the person actually needs access, get approval from the person's manager, put in a request with the guy who manages the content filter, wait a few days until he can get around to it, then call the person back and let them know that the site has been allowed.
That's an awful lot of work to keep the very few people who may browse porn at work from browsing porn at work, and it's a major pain in the ass to the honest people trying to do their jobs. I haven't done a formal study, but it must cost the company thousands of dollars every month (maybe more) in the cost of the service plus the man hours spent going through this exercise. How much would the company lose if they just stopped content filtering? Significantly less.
But that doesn't matter. Management looks at this as an IT issue, not a management issue. If they push this responsibility onto us, that's one less thing they have to do, and one more level of blame that separates them from potential violators of corporate policy.
Going back to topic, games are the same way. If someone goofs off all day playing Solitaire, management looks at it as a problem with the computer or a problem with the IT department. Funny, they never seem to see it for what it really is: a problem with the employee or a problem with the employee's manager.
Let the IRS play all the games they want. The more games they play the less time they have to audit me.
Which, of course, it doesn't because 600,000 man days of work are now being 'lost' by the employees switching to instead. That 600,000 days was an illusion - the productivity was never there to be had, in some jobs it's impossible for people to work as if they were machines. I including programming in this by the way.
That is a very good arguement. I work for a company that realises this: Most of our staff doesn't take coffee breaks, or real lunchtimes. Instead, we prefer to sit spend half of our lunch hour eating and the other half shooting eachother in video games.
Productivity is higher than if we simply ate our food and went back to work - our minds are refreshed because we took a moment away from critical thinking (IT/Programming job, BTW).
I'm glad I work for a company like that now, and I wish other companies would realize that as well.
There'd be a lot less depressed people in the world if more companies treated employees like humans, rather than bottom lines.
-- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
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!
J
Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit.
Until the harassment lawsuits start.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
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!
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!
Wait a sec... isn't that supposed to be: "In Soviet Russia, the IRS audits YOU"? Or do you audit them over there? I'm confused!
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