I was told this story at a training session once...
An NHS trust was facing severe financial difficulties, but didn't want to make anyone redundant.

Apparently they switched off their internet-monitoring system and gave everyone free access to anything online they wanted.

But didn't change their internet usage policy...

...then ran an internet use audit several weeks later and sacked everyone who'd used the internet in an unauthorised way.


Actually, that's corporate arseholiosity, not idiocy... and stretching the bounds of believability... was sworn to me as gospel though
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:41, 10 replies)

I'd say it also counts as idiocy
because they must have had loads of people who were brilliant at their job and utterly inexpendable, but who made some trivial internet transgression, and now they're gone.
( Photoshop Bitch 2014 edition, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 18:02, closed)

"they must have had loads of people who were brilliant at their job and utterly inexpendable"


Yeah the NHS is famouse for people like that.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Tue 28 Feb 2012, 19:18, closed)

Why, I oughta...

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 19:43, closed)

The wheat with the chaff then.
I remember a friend of a friend being outraged at being fired for spending 30 hours one week arsing about on social media, chatrooms, dating sites and other stuff. She genuinely couldn't see what was wrong with being paid for 40 hours and working, perhaps (since even that would be fairly suspect) ten.
She was furious that they'd "spied" on her too, despite it being known to all that all usage was monitored and could be audited.

I said that I'd block MSN and similar if I was the boss of an institution like the one she'd worked for and she tore a strip off me saying I was obviously as bad as them, some kind of control freak.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 18:34, closed)

Even the SS were allowed on MSN.
Worse than Hitler, you are.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 19:13, closed)

actually, as history shows, hitler completely banned the internet
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 19:37, closed)

The SS probably invented MSN.

( Infidel , shit and wrong, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 23:53, closed)

I'm going to go out on a limb here
and suggest that a job like that is pretty non-essential if it even contains any means of pissing away three quarters of the working week on the internet.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 19:51, closed)

I can believe it.
A manager at Barts and The London NHS Trust was ringing people on the waiting list for orthopaedic surgery and asking if they had any upcoming holiday dates. Once they had this information, they gave the poor suckers dates to come in while they were away, so the 26 week waiting time clock (as it was then) got reset to zero due to "operation cancelled by patient due to unavailability" Absolutely true.

Another returned referral letters for specialist opinion back to the GP if they were out of area, even if the local area did not provide the specialist services for which they were being referred.

My personal favourite however is the Chief Executive who ordered several million pounds worth of not-fit-for-purpose IT from BT Cerner before leaving to take up a £200,000 a year job for...BT Cerner. Not unusual though; 2 previous CHief Executives drove through a 1.2 billion pound PFI refit of the hospitals by Skanska before leaving to work for Skanska.

Sacking a few people for porn scanning is well within their level of cuntitude, believe me!
( da5id <YOUR SIG HERE>, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 22:36, closed)

I need some way to forget I've just read this,
else I'll not be able to get to work, in the morning.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 23:21, closed)