Job Lost Because of Solitaire

The New York Times is reporting today that a man lost his job with the city because he was playing solitaire.

Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer

Edward Greenwood IX was fired Jan. 30 from his job as an assistant in the city's lobbying office in Albany, not long after the mayor spied the game on his computer screen during a Jan. 4 visit to the state capital.

Mr. Bloomberg confirmed yesterday that Mr. Greenwood's firing offense was the game of solitaire, saying that city employees were not paid to play at the workplace. The firing was first reported yesterday by The New York Post.

Mr. Greenwood said yesterday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks.

Mr. Greenwood said that he had left the solitaire game on his computer while going to pick up tickets for the mayor and other city officials to attend the governor's annual address to the state. When he returned, Mr. Greenwood said, the mayor had arrived and was posing for pictures with other office workers.

What can we learn from this?

Mr. Greenwood was probably playing the solitaire game that comes with Windows.  Had he been using Pretty Good Solitaire, he could have used the Minimize to Taskbar Tray feature to reduce the game to a tiny icon in the lower right corner while he was gone.  If he had done that, the mayor probably would not have seen it.

Comments

[Gregg Seelhoff]

Somebody I know very well also had 'playing solitaire' listed as a reason for her dismissal from a job. In truth, however, the game is probably just a scapegoat for other issues (such as a personality conflict, or a petty mayor).

[Geoff]

Yeah, but I think it had more to do with a photo-op and a slow news day...

[GBGames]

Assuming the guy was using a Windows-based system, my question would be why, if they weren't paying him to play the game, were they paying to have the game installed in the first place?

[Rob]

Have you got a boss-key for that minimzie to tray?

I think some people would fire just for seeing the game, but the 'other issues' thing is more likely, imo.