I heard of a poll asking people how many hours of ACTUAL work their employers expected of them in an 8 hour workday. The answers varied from 5 to 7-1/2 hours. When the same pollsters went to the employers the majority answered with "8 hours".
There seems to be a disconnect here.
Perhaps this disconnect is the reason the ex-sales coordinator, Emmalee Bauer (no relation to Jack could be found through Google search), 25, of Elkhart, Iowa was fired from her job at the Sheraton hotel company in Des Moines, Iowa.
She kept a handwritten journal while on the job and when told to quit writing in it while she was supposed to be working she turned to another option. Her company owned computer.
She typed 300 single-spaced pages worth of journaling on it.
After being fired she applied for unemployment benefits and was denied because of her writings. The journal was shown to Administrative Law Judge Susan Ackerman who said her writings showed a refusal to work and "amusement at getting away with it."
Some examples:
"This typing thing seems to be doing the trick. It just looks like I am hard at work on something very important."
and
"I am only here for the money and, lately, for the printer access. I haven't really accomplished anything in a long while ... and I am still getting paid more than I ever have at a job before, with less to do than I have ever had before. It's actually quite nice when I think of it that way. I can shop online, play games and read message boards and still get paid for it."
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prying1 sez:
If you are going to journal at work stick to fiction.
and an extra loud Whoo!Hooo! for Susan Ackerman. Way to go Susan, Your Honor!!!
~~~~~
Thomas S. Brock of Brocklog.net thinks that at this point in time Emmalee Bauer is searching for an agent and the Journal in it's entirety will soon be available in print for those interested enough to purchase it.
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UPDATE: I received a comment that I thought I'd bring up to the posting. This exact same comment was left on Thomas S. Brock's posting that was linked above. Mr. Brock replied in his comment section with the same question I had. "What’s your relation to this whole thing? Were you a co-worker or friend of Ms. Bauer?"
After seeing the comment on Mr. Brock's site I dug around a bit and also found the same cut and paste comment from Brodie elsewhere. I think Brodie either feels righteous indignation over the way the MSM has presented this story or has a personal interest in affecting peoples attitude towards Ms Emmalee Bauer.
Let the reader decide...
Brodie comment follows:
If you only knew!!!! She was granted unemployment the first time around. The manager at the Sheraton then found the journal and used that in the appeal. She was told she was let go because she "didnt fit in??" There was even a witness there. Just because you write your thoughts....doesnt mean those are your actions! She was never once written up for any misconduct and always did her job and sometimes even some of the managers own duties. If you still dont think something is wrong at this place, (The Sheraton Four Points in Des Moines) then ask your self why they never hired another Sales Coordinator and why the other 3 of the original sales team have resigned? Hmmm...wonder if maybe there was some other agenda going on at that place??????????? Let the truth be told! Also, the Des Moines Register seemed to like just taking exerpts from the document and using them to fit their angle for a hot story. Maybe it would be different if they added the truth, which would include a few complete sentences giving the entire context of the statements. This PERSONAL journal was done mostly off company time and to my knowledge was just simply that, personal thoughts to vent the frustrations of a HOSTILE work environment. Just because she felt something and put it in a journal, doesn't mean she acted upon it or didn't complete daily job duties. And just to reiterate, take a look back in my comments to see what has really happened at this hotel!
Sincerely,
Someone Who Knows The Truth ! - - - Brodie - - -
~~~~~
Links to the story:
Conservative Voice -The Iowa woman fired for journaling at work
Mens News Daily - Employee Fired For Journaling At Work
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