Royal Flush

February 11, 2006 4:59 AM

Fired by New York's Mayorfor playing a game of solitaire, former $29,000 a year clerk Edward Greenwood IX is sure to become the new parton saint of office politics. Whether one views Greenwood as a hapless Everyman or another poster boy for workplace diversions, the question still remains: what would Ricky Gervais do?
posted by Smart Dalek (15 comments total)

Holy crap! Why didn't Bloomberg fire the real culprit?- the ISD /Security genius who allowed a PC to go for more than a few unattended minutes without locking the user out. (In my work we can't leave a PC alone for 15 minutes before it goes into a password protected screensaver mode).
posted by Gungho at 5:55 AM on February 11, 2006

Idiot.

Who wastes their downtime playing fuckin solitaire?

Oh yeah, some 27k schmuck.
posted by HTuttle at 6:13 AM on February 11, 2006

Edward's not the only fool. If my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss so much as set foot in our building, my cube farm would be transformed into a Potemkin village within minutes.
(Gungho, same here. The Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc] is your ticket.)
posted by klarck at 6:31 AM on February 11, 2006

Paying my bill at the old Con Ed office in Union Square, I found myself a supplicant before a row of agents on a raised desk/counter like a judge would have, each worker half hidden behind a computer monitor.

I later went down around the end and looked over at the screens--you guessed it, solitaire all down the line.

This is Bloomberg's version of Guilliani firing the guy the Post caught taking multiple cigarette breaks outside his city office.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:55 AM on February 11, 2006

HTuttle writes "Idiot.
"Who wastes their downtime playing fuckin solitaire?
"Oh yeah, some 27k schmuck."

You're pretty cool, man. We should hang out some time.
posted by Fezboy! at 6:55 AM on February 11, 2006

Oh, and that cigarette guy committed suicide over the whole thing, if I remember correctly.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:58 AM on February 11, 2006

Oh yeah, some 27k schmuck.

I believe you meant to write 'some 27k gifted bluegrass guitarist and singer, trained operating-room technician, certified airplane mechanic and a former Greyhound bus driver'

HTH.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:02 AM on February 11, 2006

Wasn't Dabney Coleman the previous "parton saint of office politics"?
posted by anser at 7:24 AM on February 11, 2006

PeterMcDermott writes "I believe you meant to write 'some 27k gifted bluegrass guitarist and singer, trained operating-room technician, certified airplane mechanic and a former Greyhound bus driver'"

What's he doing at a 27k clerk job?!?
posted by clevershark at 8:06 AM on February 11, 2006

Not a lot, by the sounds of things
posted by gene_machine at 8:10 AM on February 11, 2006

> Wasn't Dabney Coleman the previous "parton saint of office politics"?

Awesome.
posted by teleskiving at 9:37 AM on February 11, 2006

Gungho, it's five minutes where I am employed.
posted by fixedgear at 10:37 AM on February 11, 2006

HTuttle, I'm totally gay for you.
posted by bardic at 10:38 AM on February 11, 2006

I found the nytimes article typically lacking. They spend 85% of the article riffing on his goofy lineage, and barely mention his dismissal, the seeming point of the piece, and no time whatsoever discussing the justification. Absolute crap piece.
posted by stenseng at 11:48 AM on February 11, 2006

I found the nytimes article typically lacking. They spend 85% of the article riffing on his goofy lineage, and barely mention his dismissal, the seeming point of the piece, and no time whatsoever discussing the justification. Absolute crap piece.

I assume it was just a companion piece to the actual article they did on it.
posted by apple scruff at 12:34 PM on February 11, 2006