State Senator Looks To Ban Solitaire
from the bad-news-all-around dept
It seems like a pretty straightforward issue. A state senator in North Carolina is claiming that he can save the state tons of cash by passing laws banning games like Solitaire and Minesweeper from government computers. While many may react by saying that state employees shouldn’t be wasting time like that, the issue isn’t quite that simple. It’s not like banning these games will suddenly turn non-productive time into productive time. If state workers are looking for ways to slack off, they’ll find them somewhere else easily enough. As plenty of studies have shown workers are feeling overburdened by new technologies that make their worklife creep into their personal life. Letting someone blow off a bit of steam by playing some solitaire shouldn’t be a big issue. In fact, if they can do it quickly during down time it may be a “refresher” that lets them be more productive the rest of the time. Now, obviously, there are some who abuse the availability of the games, but those people should be found out for not completing their work — not for playing games. All this will really do is make a bunch of state workers even more disgruntled — and that can’t be good for productivity.
Comments on “State Senator Looks To Ban Solitaire”
No Subject Given
How many people actually use a Windoze standard game such as Minesweeper for real respite, anyway?
Computer Training
When we install a new computer system, sometimes there are people who have never used a computer before, such as those who work on the manufacturing floor.
We install the PCs a few weeks early and encourage those people to play solitaire so they can get used to using a computer, using a mouse, etc. It helps to allay the fear of the unknown when that new computer system is installed.
efficacy of thought
This from ‘representatives’ that vote themselves over $20k in raises after midnight in a special session and refuse to raise the minimum wage of their electorate. But then given the sonambulist nature of the electorate, they are getting exactly what they voted for.
Efficiency? Have you ever listened to a congressional session? They can’t pronounce the word. We could save millions/billions a year by sending them all home permanently.
Cuts
Interestingly enough, I don’t know of any state government agency that has suggested saving money on administrative cuts. Wonder why that is? Lots of $$$ could be saved there instead of worrying about solitare.
As a side note, how much did it cost to even talk about removing solitare?
Re: Cuts
exactly. All this is is posturing by some idiot hoping to make a name for himself. He should run for president.
Foston
Re: Re: Thank you employer !
I am thankful that my employer allows us to play solitaire WHILE working … If I didn’t have the ability to surf the web or play games while doing my woefully boring phone job, I wouldn’t work here.
Does this government ‘tard not understand multi-tasking ?
Re: Re: Re: Thank you employer !
I agree to this article, (on techdirt, not on the “actual article) but not quite to you…
See, multitasking is actually impossible. There have been plenty studies to prove it.
Not that I don’t agree, just a bit of correction.
ban interactive training and online manuals, too
These games are simplistic, and intended to help novice users devlop their mouse skills and hand-eye coordination. I understand prohibiting them in a production environment, but this is trivial to do by policy, and doesn’t require legislation.
The legislation will also prevent the legitimate uses regardless of the context. We should extend this by making sure that no user is allowed to spend any time learning to use their system — remove the interactive training and online documentation as well.
This does not need to be Law.
This is something that should be covered by local policy, not Law. Games have no business on an official workstation, and it’s a trivial matter to have the IT department uninstall them or remotely set the permitions so the users can’t run them. Of course, with Windows, a trivial matter still takes quite a bit of manpower to perform…
Florida to Ban Online Training?
In a move to placate its preferred training providor, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation will be evaluating whether to ban online food safety training, limiting the competition for training in food safety for its 500,000 food workers. This is a far more threatening move to the IT world then the ban on online games.