Bloomberg to Workplace Solitaire Players: Quit It

February 17, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Memo to New York City employees: If you have a solitaire card game open on your work computer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg stops by to visit, you might want to close it - quickly.

A worker in the city’s state capital legislative office in Albany, New York found out the hard way recently after Bloomberg spotted the always popular workplace diversion in the process of being played on his work computer, according to the Associated Press. The mayor directed an aide to fire Edward Greenwood IX for violating city policy on inappropriate use of public computers.

“The workplace is not an appropriate place for games,” Bloomberg told the news service. “It’s a place where you’ve got to do the job that you’re getting paid for.”

Greenwood admitted that he did play solitaire occasionally at work but said that he never played for very long. “It wasn’t like I spent hours and hours a day playing, because I had plenty to do,” Greenwood told the news service. “If I had been working at something exhaustively for 2 hours, I might get a cup of coffee and play for a minute but then go right back to my work.”

The argument doesn’t wash with His Honor. Bloomberg says even a brief game of solitaire is inappropriate behavior.

“I expect all city workers, including myself, to work hard,” the mayor declared. “There’s nothing wrong with taking a break, but during the business day, at your desk, that’s not appropriate behavior.”

«