It has long been the contention of many people that government employees, especially at the federal level, are immune from repercussions for conduct that would be immediate grounds for dismissal in the private work force. It has become virtually impossible to fire government employees no matter what they do. Is it any wonder that people view the government as an entity that no longer represents the common good but instead works solely to promote its own interests?
A worker in the private sector who was caught watching porn for six hours every day when he was supposed to be working would be fired in a heartbeat. Doesn’t work that way if you work for the federal government as explained in Work Is A Pleasure.
Yet earlier this year an employee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got caught, almost literally, with his pants down. A special agent from the EPA’s Office of Inspector General showed up at the senior-level employee’s office to find out why he’d stored pornographic images on the network servers. The agent walked in on the guy—you guessed it—watching porn.
When pressed, the employee admitted he’d been watching sexy sites for two to six hours every workday since 2010. That’s somewhere from three to eight months of continuous porn watching. The man, who makes about $120,000 a year, is on administrative leave while the government investigates him. So far, EPA officials have found more than 7,000 porn files on his work computer. At a congressional hearing, it was revealed that he liked to visit a website called Sadism Is Beautiful.
It’s probably no surprise to anyone that instead of getting fired this jerk is on “administrative leave” getting full pay and benefits and probably watching porn at home this very minute.
Things don’t move as swiftly in the federal government. “There is an administrative process we must follow,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy explained during a June congressional hearing, when asked why her porn-crazed worker was still on the payroll. The EPA’s employee policy forbids viewing or downloading “sexually explicit” material at work, but like many government agencies, it doesn’t guarantee that doing so will get you fired. “Any way that we can make these processes move more quickly, I’m all for it,” McCarthy said.
The examples of outrageous conduct by federal employees seems to be a nonstop event and we can only assume that what we hear about is just the tip of iceberg. No one seems to be in charge of our government and common sense has completely left the building – all of which erodes the little bit of trust that people have left for government. Public disgust with Congress and government in general is at all time lows according to most of the polls – and the worst part is that everyone knows nothing will change.
Yet, is there is still a shred of hope left? Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) introduced a bill to make it illegal for federal employees to watch porn while at work which means if they got caught they could get fired. Congratulations to Rep. Meadows but the odds of the bill passing are just about zero
Speak Your Mind