A temporary production worker at a publishing company says he walked 10 feet from his workbench to offer a co-worker a piece of gum. Shortly thereafter, his supervisor told him to place his right leg next to the bench leg, and then padlocked a chain around both. Skoning is not shy about holding up employees for ridicule as well. On last year's list were the police department dog handlers who wanted to be paid for the time they spent commuting to work with their dogs. A tenured teacher was fired from a technical college in Maine for kissing a student.
Courts can be targets, too.
Skoning's 1994 list reported that the federal Environmental Protection Agency fired an employee who routinely slept on the job. He sued, claiming to have been discriminated against due to a handicap - severe bouts of depression. A federal appeals court ordered a trial. But that is not necessarily to say that an occasional nap would make any federal employee unfit. For taking this strong position to protect the right of federal employees to sleep on the job, we salute the court of appeals.