Do You Blog At The Office?
By Erick Posted in FEC — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Be honest now. Do you? Do you blog about politics from the office? If so, you could be banned by the FEC. That's the point Mike Krempasky, Kos, and others have been making. How? Simple.
The FEC has a regulation that prohibits you from volunteering your time to politics while you are at work. 11 C.F.R. 114.9(a) states
Employees of the corporation may, subject to the rules and practices of the corporation, make occasional, isolated, and incidental use of the facilities of a corporation for individual volunteer activity in connection with a federal election.
The Center for Responsive Politics wants the FEC to make it clear that the same rule applies to blogging from the office. What does "occasional, isolated, and incidental use" mean? Well, the FEC tells us.
Any such activity which does not exceed one hour per week or
four hours per month, regardless of whether the activity is undertaken during or after normal working hours, shall be considered as occasional, isolated, or incidental use of the corporate facilities.
Do you blog from the office more than that? If so, you are probably going to be in trouble.
Read on . . .
In fairness, the FEC sets out a less defined definition of "occasional, isolated, and incidental use." The full standard, including the portion quoted above, is this:
As used in this paragraph, occasional, isolated, or
incidental use generally means--
(i) When used by employees during working hours, an amount of activity during any particular work period which does not prevent the employee from completing the normal amount of work which that employee usually carries out during such work period; or
(ii) When used by stockholders other than employees during the working period, such use does not interfere with the corporation in carrying out its normal activities; but
(iii) Any such activity which does not exceed one hour per week or four hours per month, regardless of whether the activity is undertaken during or after normal working hours, shall be considered as occasional, isolated, or incidental use of the corporate facilities.
The problem, of course, is that beyond the safeharbor provision of (iii), the burden is on the employee to make the case. So, because most blogs have time stamps, someone could plausibly file a complaint against the blogger if it seems certain, based on the number of posts in a week, that the blogger has exceeded the safe harbor provision. Then it would be up to the blogger to show that he falls in the less tangible provisions of (i) or (ii).
And if the blogger fails? Well, according to the FEC
A stockholder or employee who makes more than occasional,
isolated, or incidental use of a corporation's facilities for individual volunteer activities in connection with a Federal election is required to reimburse the corporation within a commercially reasonable time for the normal and usual rental charge, as defined in 11 CFR 100.52(d)(2), for the use of such facilities.
SOURCE: 11 C.F.R. 114.9(a)
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Do You Blog At The Office? 4 Comments (0 topical, 4 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I'm profoundly guilty of coming here, among other places, while at work.
Granted that I'm an hourly employee. (One of those folks that Howard Dean wouldn't suspect of being Republican, because I work for a living!) But nonetheless.....
And yes, I'm a fairly priviliged "hourly employee". I'm hourly because I've told them several times that if they try to put me on salary, I'll immediately quit. And I mean it. But were I on salary, they'd cheerfully work me 70+ hours a week. Given my hourly rate, they are awfully reluctant to do that as long as I'm on the clock.
But regardless. I do come here from work, when the filter isn't blocking "Redstate" because it's got "pornography".
I'd go kick someone's tush, if I had any earthly reason to come here that was remotely work related. But the situations are similar, actually.
I don't do it with my employer's sanction, and I don't ask permission. It's just how I kill time when I'm waiting for the next crisis to hit.
And if the FEC wants to make that somehow a political contribution, I may have to seriously consider mounting a new Sucession movement, or otherwise finding a like minded group of people who want to overthrow the idiots.
If they want to restrict my freedom of speech to that degree, what is it good for?
If we can't beat this one, it's clearly time to clean out both the Democrats and the RINO's, for once and for all.
I've still not figured it out. It's hit and miss, in that it'll block it for a week, or an hour, or won't.
I'm confused. But the IT department won't bother me if it isn't real porno. And nobody is going to mistake this for a XXX website, if they look.
So I'm not worried, per se. Just a bit bumfuzzled by the intermittent nature of the blockage.
HeHe.
And in the words of several Ancient Chinese Philosophers....
"Me not give $hit!" At least that's what the Chinese guy we work with always says, and he's as close as I come to knowing a Chinese Philosopher personally!
but not using their equipment?
In my position, I do not have internet access. Those people who do are fairly tightly monitored ... long story ... however sometimes I bring my own laptop from home with my own wireless card and will stay in at lunch.
Supposedly, at lunch I am not on "company time" ... is sitting on a county owned chair and using a county owned desk or even merely breathing air within my office's wall considered "use of the facilities"??
These are the same people who have turned freedom of religion into freedom from religion. Of course they are going to apply the same despotic thinking to free speech. This will go on as long as we tolerate, unless 'they' get too powerful and suppress/oppress us completely