RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina judge refused to order the reinstatement of a state employee fired in 2008 for repeatedly sleeping on the job.
The Charlotte Observer reported Thursday that an administrative law judge ruled the Transportation Department had good cause to fire Elsie Hinton.
Hinton had complained she was a victim of discrimination banned by federal law. She said she suffered from sleep apnea (AP'-nee-ah), a condition that prevents her from getting uninterrupted sleep.
State officials said Hinton fell asleep on the job several times over a five-year period, was disciplined, and given the opportunity to get medical help.
Hinton was a $55,000-a-year artist at the Department of Transportation when she was fired.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Why work for the State
For graduating HS, college, community college students do not consider State Employment for a career. Your pay is completely at the mercy of the Governor and Legislature. They decide for you whether you deserve a raise or not. Over the last several years they have decided to cut pay and this year not give any raises. Now the private sector is completely different. If you can get with a good company hard and faithful work will be rewarded. You can participate in profit sharing, bonuses, pay raises. The State offers nothing but bureacratic idiocy. State promotions are supposed to be based on merit. The merit is not your work but who politically you know. In the private sector if you slack off at work, do not show up and generally do not perform you are fired. For the State you can be the best, most dependable employee there is. You can also be the worst, most undependable employee there is and receive the exact same percentage pay raise the good employee receives. Where is the incentive and motivation to want to accel. Other than personal integrity there is none. The State workforce is gutted with incompetent managers and the main reason it takes so long to get anything done with the State. You can see from our past Governor and the present one that campaigns were flooded with illegal money. Easley was trading State resources for lucrative contracts and appointments to benefit his personal fiscal situation. If you expect in starting a new career that your good work, motivation will reward you, then do not, I repeat do not start State service.
I hate to tell you this, but...
...the state government is an amateur when it comes to treating employees badly. Work for a very large corporation, throw in a union, and you have everything you mentioned in your post thrice over.
Still, in this day and age, you have to be thankful you're getting a paycheck.
DOT Employee fired for sleeping?
C'mon now!!! What's up with that? If that were a true case for firing, the DOT would lose 90% of their employees.
I suppose this adds to the other 153 DOT workers laid off last week. They finally found a shovel that could stand up by itself.
And we all know what is yellow, has four doors and sleeps six, right? A DOT truck.