DOT employee fired for sleeping at work | CharlotteObserver.com

Fired for napping at her desk! Are you kidding me? (CharlotteObserver.com)

Elsie Hinton, a North Carolina state employee with sleep apnea was fired for napping four minutes at her desk. Managers caught her in the act, photographed her with a cell phone, and fired her.

First of all, this is such a lame reason to fire someone. A four minute nap, why that’s just criminal! Then, she wakes up refreshed and gets back to work. Come on, I get sleepy, so does everyone, right?  WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL?

Does her employee association back her up? Not a chance, they apparently have no sympathy for sleepy employees.

Dana Cope, executive director of the 55,000-member State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC), advocates for state workers but offered no sympathy to Hinton.

“There are lots of people in North Carolina, inside or outside the state work force, who have sleep apnea and that’s not an excuse for sleeping while on duty,” Cope said. “When performance of a state employee is found to be not up to standard … we’re not going to defend them. It sounds like the absolute right thing was done in this case.”

A side note about this employee association director (from http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1408320.html). Mr. Cope has received nine speeding tickets since 1993, with six for getting clocked at least 20 mph over the limit.  Also, Cope was given a citation Feb. 8 in connection with a scuffle with a neighbor. None of those things compares to the heinous crime of napping though! Hence, the lack of sympathy.

So dear encubicled ones, should you be so lucky as to work for the State of North Carolina, here are some of their performance standards:

• if you zone out for more than four minutes during a boring meeting, you will be fired
• if you spend more than four minutes in the bathroom, you will be fired
• if you come to work more than four minutes late, you will be fired.
• if you spend more than four minutes talking about your weekend, you will be fired.
• if you spend more than four minutes on your smoke break, well, North Carolina being tobacco country, then that’s okay.

Well, we really know that what was really going on is a manager desiring to fire her with some kind of legal or “valid” cause. It took him a while, but he finally found her breaking a rule!

In Desperate Times, Employers Wary of Desperate Measures

With tens of thousands of people out of work and desperate to get back into the ranks of the employed, hiring managers are being advised to be ever more vigilant about resume fraud. Of course, you’d never lie about your education and experience. But the head of a New York City-based background checking firm reports that after the dot.com bubble burst, “as people were unemployed more, the accuracy of the data [on resumes] fell off.” Those who are tempted should know that employers will be more apt to verify details regarding their work histories, including start and end dates and their reason for leaving, and will attempt to talk to people other than the references provided by the job candidate. The Internet will also hinder someone attempting to reinvent themselves on the fly. “Anybody who doesn’t Google [a prospective] employee creatively is making a mistake,” the sleuthing agency head advises. Read on at:

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653695797922735.html>

Contract Positions Inflate Job Opening Numbers

Are tech jobs available or not? It depends on what you mean. Dice.com is reporting that the overall number of tech job listings on its site has shown its first uptick since last summer, after the jobs site lost close to 40,000 ads over the course of 2008. But the number of openings for permanent jobs with benefits continues to fall, while more contractor positions are available. Listings for contractors currently make up nearly 42 percent of its tech industry openings, with that number expected to reach 50 percent of the total sometime this year. Job market analysts say that employers are also demanding more in the way of skills while placing strict stipulations on pay and the length of contracts. Read on at:

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10162879-92.html>

Some Employers are Cheating on H-1B Visas

As the list of U.S. companies putting thousands of employees out to pasture swells, the U.S. government is redoubling its efforts to combat H-1B visa fraud. On 12 February, federal agents arrested 11 people in six states on suspicion that they had abused the visa program by displacing qualified U.S. workers and paying foreign nationals the prevailing wages of their home countries. Some others lied on visa applications, claiming that the foreign workers would be doing high tech jobs when no such jobs existed. One Pakistani worker, brought in on an H-1B visa ended up pumping gas at a refueling station. The arrests follow the release of a report from the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Service alleging that about 20 percent of H-1B applications violate the terms of the program. Read on at:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=careers&articleId=9127943&taxonomyId=10&intsrc=kc_top

Prison Life Vs Full-Time Job

Author Nick: Stupidcopfinder
Name: Ken Adams
Site: http://www.dumbazzcops.com

In prison you spend the majority of your time in an 8 X 10 cell.
At work you spend most of your time in a 6 X 8 cubicle.

In prison you get three meals a day.
At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for that one.

In prison you get time off for good behavior.
At work you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.

In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
At work you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.

In prison you can watch TV and play games.
At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

In prison they only ball-and-chain you when you go somewhere.
At work you are just ball-and-chained.

In prison you get your own toilet.
At work you have to wait in line and share the toilet.

In prison they allow your family and friends to visit.
At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends.

In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers, with no work required.
At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for the prisoners.

In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside wanting to get out.
At work you spend most of your time wanting to get out and then inside bars.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

This is My Office Space

OK, I don’t really have a cubicle. It’s more like a corner with a work surface. Since the MAN won’t allow cameras into their super-secret cube farm, I show this photo as a near replica.

Actually my “cubicle” has the cabinet on the other wall, and the partition between me and the lady on the other side is lower. If I stand up, I am right in her face. So much for privacy. But when she sends me an email, it’s easy to give a verbal response!

Hope your environment is a bit better than mine. I have had better and I have had worse.

I found a loaded gun in my co-worker’s desk

Dear Cubie,

I found a loaded gun in my co-worker’s desk. I wasn’t meaning to peek into his personal space, but was just looking for my favorite stapler that I though he might have taken.

So now I am in a predicament. I found my stapler in his drawer, so as I suspected, he is a thief (I also found some other employee’s wallets and other personal items). Even weirder, he had a notebook with a list of some of our co-workers it in, and really spooky and disgusting sketches of them. I know these people, and while they can piss me off sometimes, this list of his, with all the ranting and crazy writings in the notebook really creeps me out.

What should I do?
Weirded-out in West Virginia

BS Business Pics that show we are a really good company

You often see images like these in business web site or brochures. They mean nothing. Their employees never look this attractive or happy. They are actors, and a more truthful picture of the company employees would show slackers by the coffee machine, bored people in cubicles, beaten down and depressed people walking into the elevator for another day in the rat race.

Office Coffee Machine is Broken – the Horror!

I depend on my free coffee at work. I admit, I am addicted. And the free stuff here is pretty good (has to be, we are in Seattle, after all). We drink a lot of it. Usually there are two of those pump containers full of the stuff, and one more in the process of being filled.

No pots are being filled today. The coffee machine is broken. I knew it was broken last night, as I needed one more cup to make the drive home after work. And I discovered the horror! No more coffee, and a sign saying “call made to the coffee machine maintenance people”. The coffee delivery and repair people are our most important out-sourced operation.

So this morning I brought a travel mug to work with me, full. That didn’t last long.

10:00am:
Time to try some of those energizing techniques I usually ignore. First off, breath more. You know, deep, slow yoga breaths. It does clear the mind, boosts your concentration level. Why don’t I do that more? Umm, because I’m hooked on coffee.

More techniques – movement. Try to take a brisk walk (a loop around the office). Then, a few minutes later, another trip down and back up the stairs. More stretching, head rolls, isometrics.

11:00am:
My concentration is flagging again. I eat some snacks. Ummm good, Graham crackers! Now, I feel energetic, but a few minutes later, insulin shocked, I am ready to take a nap.

Change is good, it always stimulates the mind, even if the change is just something trivial like a physical change. I try spinning around in my swivel chair, clockwise twice, feeling dizzy, counter-clockwise twice, feeling less dizzy. After that wears off, I pinch myself hard. That’s a rather painful way to stimulate your senses, better suited for late night driving when you are nodding off.

Noon:
A teleconference. What a crappy time for a meeting. At least all I have to do is listen with my headset on. Oh-oh, head nodding, eyelids heavy, must – stay – awake …

1:00pm:
I hear the beeps and boops of people hanging up on the conference call. I wake from my refreshing nap. I have learned since college to sleep sitting up – if only I could do it with my eyes open, too!

Lunch time! Can I eat a nourishing meal, and not feel like napping afterward? I doubt it, so I will buy a really big cup of coffee.

1:05pm:
WTF! I forgot that they close the cafeteria at 1:00. It seems that so many people that work here come in ridiculously early (like 7am!) and are ready for lunch at 11am. So the cafeteria is open for only two hours, in which case I missed my window of opportunity. So I could walk across the street or take a quick drive, right? For some crazy reason, our office building is located in an industrial wasteland, and there are no restaurants around – for miles.

So I eat some snacks that I have squirreled away for such emergencies. Like more graham crackers, and some salted soy nuts. Yum (not). I did bring some fruit – an apple and a banana. I like them for late afternoon energy. Must ration my foods.

1:15pm:
I usually have a coffee after lunch. No – I always have a coffee after lunch. Except today. I consider taking a bag of coffee from the machine, and eating it. Hey! Maybe I could dump some in my mug, and microwave it with water! That work OK. Lots of unfiltered bits, but strong and caffeinated. I brush my teeth in the bathroom to remove the grounds from between my teeth when done.

2:00pm:
It takes a lot of work to maintain my work state, if you know what I mean. But I am awake, sort of. I check to see if the coffee machine has been fixed. NOooo! A new sign – “the maintenance people will not get to this until their evening shift”!

I take a brisk walk outside. Walking is a good way to energize. It is hard to fall asleep while walking. You can also get into a meditative state if you just feel everything around you, observe and listen without thinking. Meditation is a good way to revive your brain. The walking meditation is going well, and then, being Seattle, it starts to rain.

3:00pm:
Being wet for the last half hour has “refreshed” me. Hard to fall asleep when you are soggy. I focus all my attention on my computer screen, composing oh so complicated Perl scripts to do something or other. It is important work – it keeps me busy and awake. Thankfully, there are no meetings to attend.

4:00pm:
Time is dragging on so. I want something, anything to amuse me, to stimulate. Now is when I would go talk to a friend, interfere with their work cycle, all for my amusement. But everyone here is serious about their work. Or off to some meeting. Maybe I should do some web surfing, read some political posts to get my blood boiling.

4:10pm:
Nodding off again. Just for a minute, as in “resting my eyes for a minute”.

4:45pm:
Everyone coming back from meeting – I wake up. Doh! Hope nobody noticed.

I plan to stay until about 6pm to catch up on work, I need to get things done!

Damn you, damn you to hell, you worthless coffee machine!

5:55pm:
Enough of work, I’m a going home to have some real coffee. Bye!

Epilogue

OK, I am better now, I’ve had a cup of really strong French roast. Perhaps, if I got more sleep at night, well, then less sleeping during the day? Maybe I shouldn’t have just had that strong coffee now, just a couple hours before bedtime!

Fun facts about coffee and health I discovered.

• • Heart disease including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high inflammatory indicators like homocysteine
  • Acid reflux and GERD
  • Women’s health problems such as PMS, menopausal symptoms, infertility, fibrocystic breasts, and osteoporosis
  • Diabetes and Insulin Resistance Syndrome
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease and Colitis
  • Interstitial Cystitis
  • Sleeplessness and fatigue
  • Stress
  • Mood disorders and depression
  • Migraine headaches

• Caffeine elevates stress hormones.
• Caffeine triggers hypoglycemia and increases appetite.
• Caffeine aggravates Insulin Resistance Syndrome.
• Approximately 20% of the population is caffeine sensitive, causing:

OK, so coffee can be bad, but it smells so good. Maybe it is the anticipation of getting that little buzz. It does not seem to lead to hard drugs, at least not in my case. The brain and body go through cycles, where my brain works well, and then not so well. The coffee gives me the boost I need when I am slumping. Maybe I should just let the cycle go naturally and just goof off during my brain freezes.

What I don’t like, is that caffeine seems to buzz part of my brain into overdrive, and other parts go inactive. If I drink a lot of coffee, I’ll focus on a specific task, usually something very technical like computer programing, or organizing my desk. But sometimes, creative ideas start to form, then as the buzz wears off, that part of my brain gets confused, and it wants to do more familiar things. I think that is the way creativity works with most people though. Creativity is after all, to leave the familiar to investigate the unknown, and that can be tiring. We all like to come home for a rest after our adventures, so to say.

Also, it makes me pee a lot.

Get Off Yer Ass – Treadmill Desks

This is fine, keeps you active, but you are still indoors. I want to be fitted with a bionic suit so I can walk around outside while being simultaneously able to call, email, write, and keep my thoughts in long term computer memory. Of course, do not use your bionic computer while driving, that’s a safety tip.