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Comment by ohitsdom | Hacker News Reader

I'd think administrators would have a very different approach to disciplining a "bad office-supply purchasing" decision versus a well-thought out choice to use school equipment & electricity for non-work related causes.

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> electricity for non-work related causes

I wish we could fire teachers for using their computers for Facebook and Amazon shopping during the day.

And should private sector employers fire their employees for using their computers to do the same? Obviously I don't want to see teachers goofing off on social media instead of teaching kids, but if they aren't actively teaching, why not? The idea that every second of your time on the job needs to be spent furiously working is an attitude from the industrial revolution - I would have thought these days we were more interested in results.

Do you want to be fired for using your computer for non-work activities?

in the school where I most recently taught, there was an explicit expectation that teachers could use district computers for personal business when on break. Being on facebook when they had kids in the room would be an entirely different matter.

The internet was also heavily monitored, with a proxy server that required a login to get to forbidden sites. Our IT guy had a pretty good idea of when teachers were getting on facebook etc.

This question is not intended at all to be snarky. Seriously.

And then you'll hire them?

Gets complicated fast, dunnit?

If they have shown they can get the job done, why wouldn't I? (Other than not being in HR and all).

Also, hard not to feel a little snark in the emphasis and "dunnit", really...

I would not have thought of that :) I just thought it was a contraction of "doesn't it".

Perhaps they are like farmers we paid to not grow corn in the past.

But that's just for the time-servers, not the dedicated professionals, who are probably the majority.

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