From the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Public employees in Cumberland, Virginia are in big trouble over a joke many would consider racist. The joke deals with someone getting divorced and …well…let’s let the TD, as they call it further south, tell the story:
A racist joke that recently made its rounds via e-mail in Cumberland government offices is causing a stir in the rural county.
The forwarded joke about a hillbilly farmer seeking a divorce uses the term “nagger” in reference to an African-American baby.
According to e-mail records obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the joke was sent to the county’s general registrar, Marlene Watson, on May 29. On June 1, Watson forwarded it to several others, including some county employees, with a note reading, “Too cute!!”
Two days later, Judy Marion, a Sheriff’s Office secretary, passed the joke along to all 24 county administration employees and Sheriff Darrell Hodges, among others.
Later that day, upon receiving the joke, County Administrator Judy Ownby issued a sharp rebuke by e-mail to all county employees, calling the e-mail “regrettable.”
She attached a copy of the county’s e-mail policy, which states that “inappropriate e-mail” is subject to disciplinary actions. It also recommends: “Treat every e-mail message as something that could end up on the front page of the Times-Dispatch.”
This is very wise advice, especially for those who fall under the ‘public servant’ category of worker. Much has been discussed about public employees recently on ‘howlings. One of the things that will dump a PE (public employee) faster than greased lightning is violation of the acceptable use policy of electronic equipment. This should mean no sitting on the photocopier, no porn sites with the computer and no telephone sex using county or state equipment.
I think the feds are a little laxer about such things, at least if one doesn’t get caught. Private employers usually are more forgiving but that all depends on who they are. The good news is, a private employer isn’t subject to a FOIA request.
Anything, and I mean anything, that could be construed as racist or prejudicial, even if not in joke form is best not put on any electronic devices belonging to the employer. Sexual jokes or comments are also another good way to get terminated or at least busted back to buck private. Many employers in this area, Northern Virginia, in particular, have filters on computers that allow the IT person to trace where everyone goes using that computer.
Additionally, public schools as well as other places like jails have very high powered parental devices and firewall filters on them that prevents kids and everyone else in a building from going to porno sites, etc. Often smart kids can figure out how to circumvent the firewall.
The folks in Cumberland County just got caught red handed. There was no electronic snooping involved.
So did everyone in Cumberland County get fired? Just about. The story continues:
“This was very inappropriate and not a way to use county equipment,” Ownby said yesterday, but she noted that disciplinary actions were left up to the sheriff and the county’s three-member electoral board that oversees the registrar.
Reached by phone, Electoral Board Chairman Lloyd A. Martin Jr. said yesterday that the three members had met earlier in the morning to discuss the matter.
“We’re just letting it ride right now,” he said.
Asked to clarify his statement, he replied: “That means we’re not going to do anything about it right now.”
The Cumberland Registrar’s Office was closed yesterday. A woman who answered the phone at Watson’s home yesterday afternoon said, “Honestly, that e-mail is not racist and it has nothing to do with anything.” She would not give her name.
Nancy Rodrigues, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said the state board could remove a general registrar from office through the Circuit Court, but only if a formal complaint were lodged.
Cumberland Sheriff Darrell Hodges said Marion, the secretary, had been placed on leave pending an investigation. Marion could not be reached for comment.
“I took immediate action,” he said. “No ifs, ands or buts. I want everyone to know that racial insensitivity is not a joke, and it will not be tolerated in this department.”
Hodges, who said Marion would receive sensitivity, diversity and cultural training, added that he didn’t believe Marion sent the e-mail with any malice.
“I don’t think it was intentional, but I do think it was extremely offensive,” he said. “Whenever she gets a joke, she loves to forward them to make everyone’s day brighter.”
Employers can get down right unfriendly about this sort of thing. This is all part of the concept “if someone wants to get you, they will.” Hopefully every one in Cumberland County learned a lesson without having to learn it on the unemployment line. What we might view as harmless or cute might just be the trigger that makes someone else report you. I wouldn’t want to be poor Marion. Sensitivity, diversity and cultural training sounds like a LONG week. I wonder who they have on hand to perform that task?
I have no idea why, but a shockingly large number of people just can’t handle computers in the workplace. Somewhere along the line folks just lost track of what is acceptable at work. I’ve seen this kind of stuff with my younger co-workers and I’ve warned them about it. I’ve heard of lawyers who have an over-full load building cases against internal employees and their misuse of computers. It’s crazy.
My employer allows a lot of freedom with internet use, with the caveat that you are always being monitored. But no matter what, there is always some idiot who doesn’t get the concept of an audit trail and thinks they can spend hours at a time surfing, or they trade stocks, download porn, pass out objectionable jokes and videos or charge their iPod or plug in other devices on their work computer. What is the matter with these people? And where do they get the time? I’m up to my eyeballs most workdays. I don’t get it.
As an IT guy this is one of my fav shirts. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/frustrations/31fb/
In some ways government is more constrained on what they can monitor on a computer or network. In some ways they are not. 😉
BTW, you can have hours of fun just reading people’s chat logs… Seeing those same people at the water cooler. Priceless!
And ordinarily I would snarl at you over invasion of privacy but not this time.
Almost all employers have an acceptable use policy for electronic equipment. They state this policy to employees and often advise that they have the capacity to read anything you have written or trace any place you have ‘visited.’ I am not sure why no one believes them.
Why are people visiting chat rooms from work? I think if I were king of a company I would demand that the IT person give me a monthly report of who had been where. It would be a real pain in the ass the first couple of times. I bet I wouldn’t have to do it more than twice.
I wouldn’t care if people read the paper, blogged, talked with a friend on a messenger client, or bought stocks on their lunch hour. But whatever I got from them had better be on a lunch hour.
I used to know people who sat in chat rooms all day and came home with a pay check. Most of this was with the feds.
MH, correct. As you know from previous posts I’m a big person on privacy. But, with IT resources belonging to a company or the government there is little to no expectation of privacy. Almost all computers show some kind of warning that monitoring of the system is present. I don’t see it any different than I wantingly walking into a bank or 7-11 that says CCTV is in use. I would object to a CCTV in a public space however. 😉
We also now have more ‘knowledge workers’ than we do ‘wrench turners’. That makes the problem even larger. Add into the mix Facebook and Twitter and you have a big headache for IT Security guys like myself.
Marin, and a great deal of lost productivity time for the employer. The employer and the stockholders are the real losers.
Every day that I plug into this blog I start feeling older and older. Chat rooms? Twitter? Texting? Shoot, I was forcibly separated first from a mechanical typewriter and then from an electronic typewriter and virtually frog-marched into the status of slave to something called a Wang. Sending jokes by e-mail? Heck, I remember when the whole computer system was a joke. You’d write something and then wander away from your desk for a moment. Suddenly the person in charge of the computers would yell “System crashing!!!” God help anybody who happened to be standing in the path of someone who forgot whether they had saved their work.!
@ Wolverine:
Too funny. I cannot stand to see my daughter and granddaughter texting. They look like monkeys. They are also very rude. You can’t even carry on a conversation with them because they are doing the monkey thumbs thing.
And you are totally right about system crash. 😉