Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[MrTango]

Docking this as possible PD: Nurse at King Edward VII's hospital gives out information to a radio show about Duchess of Cambridge's medical details, thinking she was talking to the Queen.  It was a prank call but I'm not sure why nobody could figure that out - that must be one really good impression.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/kate-middleton-pregnant-hospital-nurse-radio_n_2243362.html

Rumour has it that the show is already on probation for other pranks. I don't think it will take long for the axe to fall.

Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that was illegal (impersonating a member of the royal family in order to get information that they would not otherwise legally be able to obtain).

[NyaChan]

I've called in because I was sleepy/tired before - but I knew better than to say that.  What's bad about this is that when sleep is the reason, there are plenty, plenty of reasons why a person could be that sleepy that are entire that person's fault - Thirsty Thursdays, watching a Criminal Minds marathon, reading a book you were "only going to peek at" (yeah that one's me).  If it was something else that was not that person's fault, I'd expect them to give some sort of hint to that effect.

[AngelicGamer]

Docking this as possible PD: Nurse at King Edward VII's hospital gives out information to a radio show about Duchess of Cambridge's medical details, thinking she was talking to the Queen.  It was a prank call but I'm not sure why nobody could figure that out - that must be one really good impression.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/kate-middleton-pregnant-hospital-nurse-radio_n_2243362.html

Rumour has it that the show is already on probation for other pranks. I don't think it will take long for the axe to fall.

Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that was illegal (impersonating a member of the royal family in order to get information that they would not otherwise legally be able to obtain).

I agree MrTango.  Also, I feel really bad for the nurse and I hope that nothing happens to her.  I do hope that the radio station gets kicked.

[snowflake]

Certainly.  She has a right to make a pariah of herself in the name of "free speech."  No one stopped her; she has not been arrested or imprisoned. No governmental entity has said "You can't say that."

And her prospective employers also have the right to free speech.  That speech is "No job for you!"

This. 
The problem with most people when they raise up the cry of "free speech" is that they forget that it is the fact that it covers only "The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government."   It doesn't mean that what you say or do doesn't have consequences with other people who have their rights as well.

Some good basics at this site.
http://www.uscourts.gov/EducationalResources/ClassroomActivities/FirstAmendment/WhatDoesFreeSpeechMean.aspx

Exactly.  I once had the fuuuuuuun job of telling a receptionist that she was being fired for talking about certain diseases she had caught at from who.

Any attempt to reprimand her resulted in accusations of being judgmental, a fuddy-duddy and suppressing her free speech.  I finally said in a meeting, "Her personal life is only our business because it's affecting our business."  And for that wisdom I was given the task of canning her.  Yeah, my free speech had some consequences there too!   

[Mental Magpie]

I totally get why a person might call in sleepy.  But why a person would call in sleepy on a Friday with the excuse they needed to be rested up for Monday - thus giving them 3 full days to rest up - is the outrageous part to me.

This is exactly it.  It's not the calling off for being tired, it's needing 3 days to make up for being tired.

[mmswm]

When I worked for Major Bank, one of the biggest rules we had was that we were not allowed to look up our own accounts on "employee" systems (the mainframe and other systems that employees used to work with customer accounts).  We were allowed to use the internet to go to the online banking site, like any other customer, but we were not to use employee systems as a customer (does that make any sense?). The whole reason was to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.  We had the power to reverse transactions, move money around, do bank originated credits and debits and all that fun stuff, so to mess with your own accounts could look very, very bad.  Also, every movement you make on the computers is tracked, so it would seem obvious that you would get caught in fairly short order.  Anyway, one of my coworkers regularly broke this rule.  He wasn't doing anything "bad", just balancing his checkbook and such,  but still, we'd all been given dire warnings about the consequences of such actions (immediate termination).  Of course, CW was caught and just couldn't understand why he was being let go.

[Shalamar]

Whoopsie.     I work for an insurance company, and whereas we can look up our own accounts on the mainframe if we so choose, we don't have access to, y'know, DO stuff to them. 

That reminds me of when I was a newbie programmer at my old job.  I'd been asked to check a bunch of data files for a certain type of data (can't remember what offhand, but it doesn't matter).  Our files were all called something very generic, like "FILE001", so unless you knew from previous experience that FILE001 contained, say, product information, you wouldn't know what the file held until you opened it.  I was able to look at all the files except one, because it was encrypted.  I reported this to my boss, who said "Oh, okay", and neither of us thought anything more about it.

... until a day later, when I was hauled up before the Big Boss to explain why I'd tried to open the file that contained confidential salary information!   Fortunately, I had an excellent excuse (and my boss backed me up), otherwise that could have gone very badly for me.

[dawbs]

Whoopsie.     I work for an insurance company, and whereas we can look up our own accounts on the mainframe if we so choose, we don't have access to, y'know, DO stuff to them. 

That reminds me of when I was a newbie programmer at my old job.  I'd been asked to check a bunch of data files for a certain type of data (can't remember what offhand, but it doesn't matter).  Our files were all called something very generic, like "FILE001", so unless you knew from previous experience that FILE001 contained, say, product information, you wouldn't know what the file held until you opened it.  I was able to look at all the files except one, because it was encrypted.  I reported this to my boss, who said "Oh, okay", and neither of us thought anything more about it.

... until a day later, when I was hauled up before the Big Boss to explain why I'd tried to open the file that contained confidential salary information!   Fortunately, I had an excellent excuse (and my boss backed me up), otherwise that could have gone very badly for me.

I had something fairly similar (except the getting in trouble bit) happen to me at this job.
I was looking for something on the network drive and...ta-da, I was suddenly staring at a spreadsheet full of social-security numbers!

I told the person who answered phones in the department where the spreadsheet was and got blown off.
So I went to my boss, who got her "urgle" look (she had perfected that look) on her face and had me sit in her office while she called the head of HR and the president of the company.
I'm not sure what happened to the person who blew me off--she no longer works here but I think she was on her way out already, hence why she was blowing me off.

[Dazi]

I once called in to go shopping.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Shopping.  There was a SPECTACULAR sale going on at this mall about 45 minutes from where I live and I really wanted to go.

My boss was pretty awesome about it though.  She thought it was the most interesting reason she was ever given and besides she had way over schedule payroll hours that day. Granted, she did ask me to pick her up a pair of specific, hard to find, shoes if I came across them.

[Mental Magpie]

I once called in to go shopping.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Shopping.  There was a SPECTACULAR sale going on at this mall about 45 minutes from where I live and I really wanted to go.

My boss was pretty awesome about it though.  She thought it was the most interesting reason she was ever given and besides she had way over schedule payroll hours that day. Granted, she did ask me to pick her up a pair of specific, hard to find, shoes if I came across them.

She was probably glad you were honest with her, too.

Dark Sister skipped a day in high school to go hunting with Dark Father.  When she showed up and told them why, they gave her detention.  That's what telling the truth gets you, I guess.

[Reika]

Mom heard about this situation this morning on the news and I figured it was perfect for this thread.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Man-accused-of-booting-ambulance-arrested-182254361.html

[Gwywnnydd]

Mom heard about this situation this morning on the news and I figured it was perfect for this thread.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Man-accused-of-booting-ambulance-arrested-182254361.html

I love the bit where he's been in the country for at least ten months, but according to his co-worker he doesn't know what an ambulance looks like...

[Reika]

Mom heard about this situation this morning on the news and I figured it was perfect for this thread.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Man-accused-of-booting-ambulance-arrested-182254361.html

I love the bit where he's been in the country for at least ten months, but according to his co-worker he doesn't know what an ambulance looks like...

No kidding. I did a lot of eyerolling at that part.

[rose red]

Mom heard about this situation this morning on the news and I figured it was perfect for this thread.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Man-accused-of-booting-ambulance-arrested-182254361.html

I love the bit where he's been in the country for at least ten months, but according to his co-worker he doesn't know what an ambulance looks like...

No kidding. I did a lot of eyerolling at that part.

Store clerks can put boots on cars?   

[LEMon]

Mom heard about this situation this morning on the news and I figured it was perfect for this thread.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Man-accused-of-booting-ambulance-arrested-182254361.html

I love the bit where he's been in the country for at least ten months, but according to his co-worker he doesn't know what an ambulance looks like...

No kidding. I did a lot of eyerolling at that part.

Store clerks can put boots on cars?   

Looking at the previous articles on it - looks like company professional darwinism.  The quickie store is the one causing the booting to happen, overcharging, and may not have the necessary permits.