(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Electrician at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York fired for deliberately short-circuiting machines to trip breakers, so he can label which breaker goes with which circuit

"What I did was in good faith. I did not do anything malicious," added the licensed electrician, who has since found a new job. "What do they think I'm going to do, sabotage it?"

Cravetts had been asked to locate circuit breakers on the Fed computers that had not been properly labeled.

He used his gizmo to conduct the search, plugging it in and tripping breakers, knocking out power as he went along.

Cravetts told The News his superiors knew he used the device. He had made four of them at work.

Fed attorneys say he should have used a device that sends a harmless tone back to the breaker and doesn't cause disruptions.

Cravetts said that for more than a year, he had asked his bosses to order the manufactured device needed for the job, but they never did.

Comments

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Ah, the government. As long as you're pushing back, your job is safe.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

"pushing back"?

And the electrician's got a point. He was told to do this, he told them this was the only way he had to do it, they said "okay", and it's the Fed. They've got quadruple-million redundancies. What he was doing qualified as *annoying*, and whoever told him to do it damn well should have *asked* the people actually running those machines and made sure that objections were going to be made in advance - but I can't fault the electrician very much, here.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

In other words, as long as you stall, ignore, and/or misdirect, you're safe in your job. Dare to innovate to actually get work done, though, and you're outta here.