Man Fired For His Online Customer Service Game

First time accepted submitter DiscountBorg(TM) writes "An employee of the Canada Revenue Agency lost his job after releasing a humorous game in which the player answers customer service calls for the Agency, usually leading to his termination. In an email National Revenue Minister Gail Shea said: 'The Minister considers this type of conduct offensive and completely unacceptable. The Minister has asked the Commissioner (of Revenue, Andrew Treusch) to investigate and take any and all necessary corrective action. The Minister has asked the CRA to investigate urgently to ensure no confidential taxpayer information was compromised.'"

Did he do it at work or at home?

[Viol8]

If he did it at home then firing him is a flagrant abuse of the departments power. If he did it at work then its a flagrant abuse of his position and he deserved to be fired. Anyone know which?

Re:American sweatshop

[acidfast7]

Not me! I left the US behind almost 6 years ago. In the meantime, I've had a full year of paid holiday (6 years x 35 days/year holiday + 10 days/year of federal days off.)

My gross salary is even higher, but the net salary lower with the 50% deductions.

No desire to go back. The lack of unlocked phones and reasonable prepaid plans it just one recent example of you guys taking it in pooper.

Re:American sweatshop

[prefec2]

I would recommend two things in this situation:
a) Found a union, based on continental European approaches. The UK and US approaches are not that good.
b) If a) does not work, because your colleagues and fellow US citizen like to be mistreated, leave the country. In Europe we have standard health care above the MediCare stuff you have. You get 4 weeks holiday a year, protection from too many over hours, payed sick leave (in Germany) etc. according to apologists of neo-liberalism that will cause high unemployment rates. However, we do not have such thing in Germany.

On a side note: You really should get organized in the US. The information we get from the US looks more and more like stories normally associated with developing countries not a first world country.

Re:American sweatshop

[radiumsoup]

instead of a lame attempt at comedy by improper use of "dripping sarcasm", perhaps you should try critical thinking.

America has always been about self determination. If you are at a job where you don't like the situation, you have many choices. Here are a few of them, listed in increasing risk/reward order: You can join or form a union (even in non-union states, most of the time you can unionize even if it's a right-to-work state.) You can speak up and try to change the culture of your workplace. You can find a different job with the same skillset. You can move to another city with better economic prospects. You can increase your skillset through training and education and then find another job. Or you can start your own company and run it however you want.

And before you think you can get away with linking job satisfaction with education, remember that government-run schools are the ones you're complaining about. In the aggregate, private, parochial, and home-schooled kids rank far better on standardized tests than the schools you're excoriating. Think about that. The parents that follow the path of self-determination for their kids are exceeding the average, just like the people who start their own businesses do. As for lifespan and health, that's partly genetic, partly cultural (fast food, etc.), but has almost nothing to do with workplace satisfaction. Look at Japan, where they have arguably some of the worst job hours and stress in the world, but their average lifespan is higher than the US. If we were to conclude that job satisfaction correlates with lifespan and health, Japan should be doing much worse overall than the US, which isn't true.

Re:Butthurt

[AtomicTomatoOfDoom]

In all honesty, though, their workplace policies aren't all that bad. I've worked as an IT analyst for the CRA for a few years. I regularly had to interact with employees that manned the phones and made friends out of a few of them, all of whom eventually quit. Essentially, the workplace environment isn't all that bad (I'd even go as far as to say that it's relatively nice). However, those who quit explained to me that they felt like they were slowly dying from the inside. See, their job is to call people owing the government money and essentially threatening them of legal action until they would pay up. Calling that one guy who owns a yacht and hasn't paid his taxes in 4 years feels okay, satisfying even. It's when they have to call a grandmother living alone in a small apartment, who breaks down in tears when they tell her the amount she owes that their job gets rather excruciating.

Re:American sweatshop

[Anonymous Coward]

And then complain when it's outsourced for someone else to cope with.

Comments like these that earn +5 Interesting must be getting mods from foreigners. I say this as a citizen of the USA: we like to complain, sure, but we also like to do hard work.

The problem with shill posts like yours is that they ignore the "hard work ethic" most Americans actually do have.

So fucking-A right we complain when the JOBS WE GO TO WORK AND DO EVERY DAY DESPITE HATING THEM GET OUTSOURCED.

Re:American sweatshop

[suutar]

I think I disagree. We don't especially like to do hard work, but we do like to accomplish significant tasks, which generally involve hard work. (If it wasn't hard it wouldn't be significant :) Hard work for its own sake sucks.