Unappealing Option

Richard Barr, who works for the Homeland Security Department in Washington, raises some good points about my item on the Census Bureau employee who challenged his firing for downloading child pornography on his work computer:

My reading of the article, coupled with my knowledge of the system, was that the employee was out the door and off the payroll shortly after his offense was discovered. The balance of the five years was an appeal of that decision in an attempt to have the employee reinstated. If the firing had been improper, the employee would have been on the street without pay or benefits for five years trying to right the wrong. Significantly, most agencies offer the targeted employee an opportunity to resign and depart with clean references for prospective private sector employers. Guilty employees usually take that option, while those who believe themselves wrongly terminated are pretty much out of luck getting any job that includes a reference check. For the innocent folks (perhaps 16% of the total fired according to one study) five years waiting for vindication is a hell of a long time, and many of them wind up resigning as well.