Unless you work for Pornhub—or unless you’re, um, me, and you write about porn for the Daily Dot—your office probably frowns on the practice of watching porn at work. But tell that to this anonymous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee, who was discovered to have downloaded a whopping 7,000 pornographic files on a government computer.
According to an independent watchdog for the agency, the employee, who allegedly makes $120,000 a year, admitted to watching adult content on his work computer for two to six hours a day. The employee’s habits were discovered when an investigator approached his desk to conduct a standard workplace interview, during which the employee was—you guessed it—watching porn.
The discovery of the EPA employee’s unconventional methods for upping workplace morale arose in the context of a broader investigation into the EPA’s employees, after former senior agency official John Beale was convicted in 2013 of defrauding the agency of almost $900,000 in pay and benefits. The investigation also found that an EPA senior official had allowed a former employee to collect nearly $500,000 in pay and benefits, all without even reporting to work.
At this point, you might be thinking: “Wow, defrauding the Environmental Protection Agency of $900,000 is pretty bad. What’s the big deal in comparison if a mid-level staffer gives himself a little rub-and-tug in the privacy of his own cubicle?” On this point, however, the members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee disagree with you. They’re none too pleased about the anonymous EPA employee watching porn in the office, especially since the dude is—wait for it—still on the EPA’s payroll.
Commitee Chair Rep. Darrell Issa sharply rebuked EPA deputy administrator Bob Perciasepe for keeping the porn-watching employee on staff, saying that “somebody viewing pornographic sites should be terminated and not be given bonuses.” When questioned by Rep. Jason Chaffetz why the employee was still working for the EPA, EPA deputy administrator Bob Perciasepe said he hadn’t been fired yet because “We need to wait for the inspector general’s report.”
H/T Bloomberg | Photo by ste3ve/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)
