MP Approves Facebook Game at Work, Speaker Says No

March 8, 2011 -

Are you busy every single second at work?

Caroline Beinke isn’t.  A staffer for Australian MP Victor Dominello, she submitted a request for “extended internet access” so she could play Bejeweled Blitz on her PC at work.  "When I have long conversations on the phone to constituents it is my version of doodling, a mental chewing gum of sorts," she said.

Can you guess how Dominello responded to the request?  Well, if you read the title of this story it’s unlikely anything’s going to come as a surprise to you but here goes:

"My staff work very very hard.  If they are sitting at their desk on hold to a department for 15 minutes, I do not have a problem with it.  I have no difficulty with this request provided it is acceptable to the Clerk/Speaker.”

Unfortunately, it most likely won’t be acceptable to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Richard Torbay who said, “I have not seen this specific request but I can say this: I put filters in place to stop staff accessing inappropriate websites in the Parliament and I do not think we should be paying people to play games."

Bummer.  I guess she’ll have to stick with downloadable games (of which Bejeweled Blitz is one) and learn to keep her fingers on the Alt and Tab keys.

Source: news.com.au via The Escapist

Image Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Contributing Editor Andrew Eisen

 

 
Forgot your password?
Username :
Password :

Shout box

You're not permitted to post shouts.
james_fudge: he'd die if he couldn't talk about Wii U :)10/20/2014 - 9:16am
Michael Chandra: By the way, I am not saying Andrew should stop talking about Wii-U. I find it quite nice. :)10/20/2014 - 8:53am
Michael Chandra: 'How dare he ignore my wishes and my advice! I am his boss! I could have ordered him but I should be able to say it's advice rather than ordering him directly!'10/20/2014 - 8:52am
Michael Chandra: If GP goes "EZK, do not talk about X publicly for a week, we're preparing a big article on it" and he still tweets about X, they'd have a legitimate reason to be pissed.10/20/2014 - 8:52am
Michael Chandra: If GP tells Andrew "we'd kinda prefer it if you stopped talking about Wii-U for 1 week" and he'd tweet about it anyway, firing him for it would be idiotic.10/20/2014 - 8:51am
Michael Chandra: Legal right, sure. But that doesn't make it any less pathetic of an excuse.10/20/2014 - 8:50am
ZippyDSMlee: You mean right to fire states.10/20/2014 - 8:50am
james_fudge: some states have "at will" employee laws10/20/2014 - 7:50am
quiknkold: It says in the article that being in florida, you can get fired regardless if its a fireable offence10/20/2014 - 7:19am
Michael Chandra: If your employee respectfully disagrees with your advice, that's not a fireable offense. If they ignore your order, THEN you have the right to be pissed.10/20/2014 - 6:49am
Michael Chandra: I... Don't get one thing. If you do not want your employee to do X, why do you tell them it's advice or a wish? Give them a damn order.10/20/2014 - 6:48am
james_fudge: A leak that had me worried about being swatted by Lizard Squad.10/20/2014 - 6:03am
james_fudge: It should be noted that the author leaked the GJP group names online10/20/2014 - 6:03am
MechaTama31: I mean, of the groups being bullied here, which of the two would you refer to collectively as "nerds"?10/19/2014 - 11:30pm
MechaTama31: But that's the thing, it doesn't sound to me like he is advocating bullying, it sounds like he is accusing the SJWs of bullying the "nerds", who I can only assume refers to the GGers.10/19/2014 - 11:21pm
Andrew Eisen: Interesting read. Unfortunately, too vague to form an opinion on but at least now I know what faefrost was talking about in James' editorial.10/19/2014 - 10:39pm
Neo_DrKefka: Breaking GameJournoPros organized a blacklist of former Destructoid writer Allistar Pinsof for investigating fraud in IndieGoGo campaign http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2014/10/gamergate-destructoid-corruption-and-ruined-careers/10/19/2014 - 8:57pm
Neo_DrKefka: Only good thing I seen come out of the Biddle incident was the fact a professional fighter offered to give 10k to an anti bullying charity for a round in the ring with Biddle.10/19/2014 - 7:49pm
Neo_DrKefka: Even after all the interviews she is still on twitter making fun of people with disabilities (Autism) yet she is a part of the crowd that is on the so called right side of history...10/19/2014 - 7:48pm
Neo_DrKefka: Which #GameGate supports are constantly being harassed and bullied. Brianna Wu who I told everyone she was trolling GamerGate weeks ago with her passive aggressive threats was looking for that crazy person in the crowd.10/19/2014 - 7:47pm
All shouts
 

Be Heard - Contact Your Politician