[ale] OT: Well it is going to hit the list sooner or later.

[Greg]

Government is not supposed to be "right to hire".  This started back in the
days of President Grant through other administrations when a new
administration would bring in a "totally new government".  All jobs would be
up for grabs as a new administration would reward it's supporters and fire
it's political enemies.  Civil service was to insure a secure, more
knowledgeable (yah, I know !), more stable group that would handle the
"everyday business of government" while the leadership would be appointees
to bring things in line with a new president's wishes.  The man is supposed
to be protected by this principle, and is indeed in this process.

As for ethics - the duties of a sysadmin are no different from any others.
Each must decide what the priority is in their lives.  Jonathon used an
example of a Maytag repairman seeing a dime bag and not calling the cops.
For me, my priorities are to my daughter (all of 2 weeks) and my community,
as well as to myself and my wife. I feel that my responsibilities of a
citizen is to uphold the law  - that "bad things happen when good citizens
do nothing".  My feelings that a citizen has a right to a judge issued
warrant and my wanting to keep my job would not interfere here.  My seeing
the dime bag is "reasonable cause" for the police to get a warrant and do
"their" duties to arrest the dirtbag as opposed to my natural inclination of
shooting him.  As for my job - everything worth anything has a price and
only those prepared to make the sacrifice should enjoy it.  I would rather
be looking for work in a less druggy community than working for someone who
helps drug pushers and worrying about the neighborhood going in the crapper.
That's a choice that I make and I understand that others may not feel that
way.  I also trust somewhat that the cops will do their job and uphold the
law and the judicial system will do it's job and incarcerate the SOB.  In
the case of Blake - *NO* is doing their job.  The boss is playing solitaire,
the upper management is ignoring it, and I don't know if any elected
representatives even knew about it so I can't comment on them.

For Blake - I don't know if he was just being sneaky and looking for his
boss's job (good point Jonathon) or he was really upset over working for a
true to life PHB.  However I (personally) feel that he should be fired for
installing spy-ware without authorization, his boss fired and made to pay
back his salaries, and upper management fired for 1) not knowing what the
PHB was really doing and 2) not reacting to Blake's communications of
mismanagement in the department.  If the citizens do nothing then they
deserve to get a crappy assed ALDOT and have higher taxes to pay for the
overhead of PHB's.

The Alabama Department of Transportation is a public government department
and is beholden to the taxpayers via the elected administration via the
upper management of the civil service down to the worker bees of the
department.  If the good taxpayers don't do anything then bad things will
happen ... or to plagiarize Mr. Franklin "Those who sacrifice honest
government for convenience deserve neither cheaper, efficient, and honest
government or the convenience of not having to ride herd on it.  The latter
job is actually the job of the press - and that is why the Founding Fathers
gave them so much freedom.  They were supposed to act as a check upon the
government.  Something they have abandoned to sell papers instead.

As an aside to this - my Dad worked for ALDOT's counterpart in the
commonwealth of VA and he told me the story of one of their managers a long
time ago when I was young.  He would come in, unlock his desk, work, lock
his desk, and leave.  No one knew "exactly" what he did.  After he died and
the funeral was over, everyone rushed into the office to see what was in the
desk that he kept locked up.  What they found were reams of paper with his
name written over and over and over (like Jack in "The Shining"). True story
?? I dunno, as my Dad passed away a few years ago and he always liked to
joke with us - but knowing government I could see it as true.

Greg


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org]On Behalf Of Adrin
> Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 11:54 AM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: RE: [ale] OT: Well it is going to hit the list sooner or later.
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org]On Behalf Of
> > Jonathan Rickman
> > Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 11:11 AM
> > To: 'Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts'
> > Subject: RE: [ale] OT: Well it is going to hit the list sooner or later.
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On
> > > Behalf Of J.M. Taylor
> > > Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 10:25 AM
> > > To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> > > Subject: Re: [ale] OT: Well it is going to hit the list
> > > sooner or later.
> > >
> > >
> > > My interpretation of the SAGE code of ethics is the
> > > following: I do not read people's emails, even tho it is
> > > within my power.  I do not spy on people, even tho it is
> > > within my power and in many cases may prove their misdeeds.
> > > I do not collect data on people's misdeeds even tho these
> > > people may be harming me on the job.  I do not make these
> > > decisions.  I just run the server.
> >
> >
> > Amen. As usual, Jenn is spot on. Dear God we need more like her in this
> > profession! Folks, regardless of how we've been conditioned by
> our peers and
> > our own egos to feel, we are barely one step up from the position of
> > Janitor. We are not any more important in the grand scheme of
> things than
> > the Maytag man. It's just that our appliance is buggy,
> unreliable, requires
> > trained operators most of the time, and for some strange reason...people
> > accept this as normal and agree to keep us on site. The minute
> you hop into
> > the saddle of the tall horse, you set yourself up for a rough ride. Most
> > companies have no use for uppity janitors. An appliance repair man that
> > comes into a home, spots a dime bag on the coffee table and
> dials 911 is not
> > likely to stay in business long. The same rules apply to us.
> >
> > Had I been in charge of the department mentioned, both the
> sysadmin and his
> > boss would have been terminated. One for wasting time and
> money, the other
> > for being a backstabbing, uppity, overly ambitious, jerk off.
> Cause we all
> > know that he probably was bucking for his boss' job.
> >
> > --
> > Jonathan "Humble Pie" Rickman
> >
>
> I have to agree with this.  No one cares about you unless the
> seat is dirty.  I went back
> and looked at Blake's website. It would be easy for ALDOT to fire
> him for other reasons.
> A consultant came in after he was fired and found problems in
> setups of software.
>
>
> Also, we have to keep in mind.  GA is a right to hire state.  I
> don't know about AL.  But
> here you can be asked to leave at anytime.
>
> Adrin
>
>
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