NASA Employee Suspended For Blogging At Work

BobJacobsen writes "FCW has an article about a NASA employee that was suspended for blogging on government time. Seems the unnamed employee's 'politically partisan' blog entries were a violation of the Hatch Act. The article ends with a chilling quote from the government's Special Counsel in the case: 'Today, modern office technology multiplies the opportunities for employees to abuse their positions and — as in this serious case — to be penalized, even removed from their job, with just a few clicks of a mouse.'" Thing is, he was soliciting campaign donations and writing partisan stuff.

Comments

fair enough

[Hatta]

Sounds fair to me. Anyone who wastes time at work posting on internet sites should really expe... shit the boss is coming.

Well gosh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thing is, he was soliciting campaign donations and writing partisan stuff.

Then he should have had a little discipline and waited till he was home.

So...

[imyy4u3]

how do you blog with "just a few clicks of a mouse?"

Perhaps the Special Counsel should be fired for "being a total idiot."

He deserved it...

[oodaloop]

...as long as he was campaigning for the other guy.

Hatch Act

[Lxy]

Since I didn't know about this Act, I searched and found:

This nice writeup. Bottom line is, this guy's a federal employee soliciting funds and pushing a political agenda on work time.

This of course has nothing to do with blogging, as you could replace "blogging" with "making phone calls" or "mailing letters" or "stalking people at the coffee maker".

Re:Hatch Act

[canUbeleiveIT]

Remind me, while Bush is campaigning and fundraising for McCain, who is paying him to do that?

If you would have read the linked resource in the parent post that you responded to, you would have known why that isn't a violation of the Hatch Act. This is a list of who cannot participate in partisan activities. You will notice that the president does not fall into that heading. Not to mention that every US President that I can remember has politicked for members of his party, so I don't know why you are singling out ole George.

Obligatory

[teslar]

As seen on bash.org:
<Ben174> : If they only realized 90% of the overtime they pay me is only cause i like staying here playing with Kazaa when the bandwidth picks up after hours.
<ChrisLMB> : If any of my employees did that they'd be fired instantly.
<Ben174> : Where u work?
<ChrisLMB> : I'm the CTO at LowerMyBills.com
*** Ben174 (BenWright@TeraPro33-41.LowerMyBills.com) Quit (Leaving)

Re:why a lower standard for government workers?

[Liquidrage]

They aren't. Many companies also allow personal use of the internet (with varying rules regulating that use). Many companies don't. Many government entities do. Many don't.

Is it OK to spend 5 minutes in the hallway talking to co-workers about the big game last night? Some places/bosses wouldn't care. Others would. Some places give you breaks and lunches. Many professionals don't a whistle that blows telling them it's break time. They manage their own time.

There is no "one size fits all here". And certainly no "lower standard" you could guess at based on the article.

Political autoblogging form

[DriedClexler]

Well, folks, it's happening again! The

( ) New York Times
( ) LA Times
( ) Washington Post

is reporting that the government

( ) is censoring scientists with unpleasant news.
( ) is going to cut back program _________.
( ) has been engaging in warrantless wiretapping.
( ) wants to raise taxes.
( ) plans to institute new product regulations

This is just another case of

( ) Big Government ramming itself down our throats!
( ) the War on Science!
( ) how conservatives are killing the safety net!
( ) government punishing anyone productive!
( ) how the country's becoming a totalitarian dictatorship!

HT:

( ) Digg
( ) Slashdot
( ) Technorati
( ) The other blogger who's a carbon copy of me