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October 18, 2007
Sending Pornographic Email OK at Work?
Apparently so, at least in the civil service in Pennsylvania. The Police Blotter at C/Net News.com reports:
Charles Webb was a senior highway maintenance manager with Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation, or PennDOT, making $84,000 a year. He supervised 156 employees and was the highest-ranking PennDOT official in the York County Maintenance Office. His duties included ensuring that his subordinates followed PennDOT's acceptable use policy for the Internet.
Instead of focusing solely on highway maintenance, however, Webb spent time forwarding sexually explicit, salacious and off-color e-mails.
Those included penis jokes, videos of stuffed animals simulating sex, a Microsoft Word document titled "The Benefits of Sex," and a series of photographs (sent to his male subordinates) of women with their breasts exposed or skirts lifted up.
Hysterical, right? So this guy was shown the door, right? Initially:
At an internal hearing in March 2006, Webb defended sending the messages as a way to boost morale and relieve stress. He was fired a month later for violating the Internet use policy, unauthorized use of PennDOT equipment, and failure to carry out his duties as a manager in a proper and responsible manner.
Stress-reliever, that's a new one, but wait there's more. Much more:
Firing a government [employee] under Pennsylvania's Civil Service Act is far more difficult. Webb appealed, and the Pennsylvania State Civil Service Commission held three days of hearings on his case over a four-month period.
In its final order released in January 2007, the Civil Service Commission agreed that some of the e-mail messages could have been inappropriate but said that firing Webb was inappropriate. Instead, the Civil Service Commission ordered that Webb be reinstated and demoted to assistant highway maintenance manager without back pay . . . .
Both appealed. On Monday, Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court left intact the Civil Service Commission's recommendations, saying they weren't obviously wrong. That means Webb will get his old job back, minus a one-level demotion. He's currently working for PennDOT as an assistant highway manager in Lancaster.
Speechless doesn't quite capture it.
Hat Tip: Eric Fink
PS
October 18, 2007 in Labor and Employment News | Permalink
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Comments
I actually think the punishment here fits the crime. It doesn't sound like he did anything maliciously. At the same time, it doesn’t sound like he can handle all the responsibility he previously had. Very bad judgment to say the least.
Posted by: Ryan Richardson | Oct 18, 2007 9:04:58 PM
I'm not sure why this would leave anyone speechless. Presumably the civil service commission has to determine whether a particular penalty is appropriate, not merely that an employee violated a rule. As in arbitration, that would probably mean considering the degree of the offense (sharing these jokes with willing recipients is less serious than using them deliberately to harass another employee, and off-color emails are less serious than overt pornography), the number of violations, the length of time over which the violations occurred, how clear the rules were, whether the employee had prior discipline, the employee's seniority, whether the employer has applied the same penalty to similar offenses, and much more.
We need more facts to determine whether this case met the relevant standards for termination, but in general, a first offense misuse of email by a long-term employee with a good record wouldn't justify termination. Demotion and a several-month suspension is a pretty harsh penalty. Is there any reason why that's inadequate?
Posted by: Dennis Nolan | Oct 18, 2007 10:10:42 PM
