Question Regarding Government Power

[nasa1974]

Using a government computer for personnal stock trading is chump change. We had a few folks here fired, demoted and given unpaid time off for passing along naked pictures and porno sites using their government computer and on government time. Taking possible profits from improper use of your government computer for day trading not likely. But loosing your job, roll the dice.

 

[Afishegg]

Yeah I remember the case in the news not long ago about that SEC worker a FEMALE as I recall who was spending hours each shift watching porn. I understand that's extreme but I dont think there is much harm using a smart phone to quickly check up on the news or stocks, everyone has them today and where I work it is common for people to Facebook and play games. However....that being said, we are not in public view and we get our work done.

I don't use the government computers unless it is government related only, that is just common sense.

 

[Steel_Magnolia]

This subject should NOT be discussed on an open site, just asking for TROUBLE enough is enough.

I wasn't aware everyone on this forum did 8 hours of full productive non-stop work every single day of the work week. If you have ever left work 20 minutes early without using annual leave, if you have ever took more then 30 minutes you are allowed for lunch, if you have ever called in sick without actually being sick, then you have no right to talk to me about job ethics. Surfing the internet for 20 minutes during the day and leaving work 20 minutes early to pick your kids up from school are the exact same thing in the eyes of the government, you are producing 20 minutes less work.

I will not state where I work, but I know for a fact I will not be out of a job anytime soon. We are just like any other work force, we have busy times during the year, and down times. We happen to be in a downtime and there's not much work to do. Does this justify people sitting around on facebook or trading stocks? No not really. So is it better for them to sit at their desk and twittle their thumbs or ask their supervisor for more work knowing there is nothing to be done? Well you all are certainly saying those are two different scenarios, but in reality you're not working in either case so whats the difference?

If Mr/s Troll is serious let him or her do it and suffer the negative consequences. I have serious doubts that the job environment is as lax as is being described. I'm sure that my government experience was pretty much the norm.

We were allowed to use government computers for person use on breaks or lunch if the sites being used weren't porn or otherwise improper. That was the policy. In real life however, like every other government agency I interfaced with, we never had the time to do something like that. We all arrived early, stayed late, worked through lunch hours and often stomped out fires on the weekend. And we didn't know what breaks were ... except for the folks who smoked. They took their breaks. And sometimes our breaks too.

Earlier in my career it was a little less frenetic. But especially in the later years there were no down-times of the year. Anymore, if you work in the federal government you know the saying: "We've been asked to do more with less so often that now we're doing everything with nothing!"

And as for leaving without taking annual or sick leave? Seriously?? Not a chance in hell. Not an hour, not 15 minutes. First of all it wasn't worth my career if I was caught AWOL. And second, stealing time is stealing. Yeah, PO, this person's posts PO'd me too.