Playing computer solitaire on the job has become one of the more common, if stealthy, ways of passing time in the modern-day office. But people who work for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may want to think twice before playing the game.
Edward Greenwood IX was fired on Jan. 30 from his job as an assistant in the city's lobbying office in Albany, not long after the mayor spied the game on his computer screen during a Jan. 4 visit to the state capital.
Greenwood, 39, said he was dismissed with no notice, and no severance pay, after working there for six years.
He earned about US$27,000 a year for duties that included sending legislative bills to city agencies and copying and circulating office memos.
Bloomberg confirmed on Thursday that Greenwood's firing offense was the game of solitaire, saying that city employees were not paid to play at the workplace. The firing was first reported Thursday by the New York Post.
"I expect all city workers -- including myself -- to work hard," Bloomberg said during a news conference in Midtown Manhattan.
"There's nothing wrong with taking a break, but during the business day at your desk, that's not appropriate behavior," he said.
In response to a reporter's question, Bloomberg, who built his own financial information empire, added that his own lack of computer skills had probably kept him from using his work computer for anything else.
Greenwood said on Thursday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, which was usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks.
"Any and all work I had to do, I did with a passion," he said. "If I have a stack of things to be done, I'm not the kind of guy to put it off."
Greenwood said that he had left the solitaire game on his computer while going to pick up tickets for the mayor and other city officials to attend the governor's annual address to the state.
When he returned, Greenwood said, the mayor had arrived and was posing for pictures with other office workers.
Greenwood said that when he asked for a picture with the mayor, too, Bloomberg went into his office and saw the solitaire game.
"I don't have any real animosity towards the guy," he said. "He's the boss, so if this is the way he wants it handled, there's nothing I can do about it. But am I happy about it? No."
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