Bad Employee Becomes America’s Latest Folk Hero

Taking a page from classic American literature, an employee identified only as “Bob” may supersede Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer as an iconic example of working smarter not harder. The software developer pulled the whitewash over his employer’s eyes by subcontracting his daily duties to a company in China. He let them crunch the code while he reportedly used the work day to surf the internet, update Facebook and LinkedIn, shop on eBay, read Reddit articles and watch cat videos before turning in his daily report every afternoon. All good things must end sometime though. Recently, the scheme was revealed and his employment terminated however the majority of comments on the story don’t condemn him for the deceit, but praise “Bob” for his ingenuity instead.

The Kaiser Soze of outsourcing, “Bob” was described as a “family man” in his mid-40s who wouldn’t warrant a second glance in an elevator. He was considered a model employee who consistently produced quality code in a timely manner.  Repeatedly cited as one of the infrastructure company’s top programmers, “Bob” frequently received excellent reviews. He was such a well-liked employee that when his account generated suspicious activity his unidentified employers attributed the anomaly to hackers or some sort of malware without even considering it could be an inside job.

The problem arose when “Bob’s” account was being accessed by someone overseas while he was obviously present in the US office. Verizon, the company’s telecommunications supplier, stepped in to sort out the conundrum and discovered the star programmer’s secret when they tracked VPN (Virtual Private Network) logins to a consulting firm in Shenyang, China and then matched it with outgoing payments logged on “Bob’s” computer. “Bob” was paying the firm a fraction of his six figure salary to do 100% of the work. Upon further digging Verizon discovered he was running the scheme on several local companies simultaneously which was grossing “Bob” upwards of several hundred thousand dollars each year after paying the subcontractors just $50,000.

Instead of outrage by American employees, the internet echoes of sentiments like, “If the company was happy, what does it matter?”  “I wish I had thought of that.” Or, “More power to him.” Most commenters say he is management material and should be promoted. Legality aside, without access to the specific work agreement signed when “Bob” was hired, the general consensus seems to be that if the company can do it to the individual, the individual should be able to do it to the company. Despite the moral questionability of his actions, it’s clear that IT professionals will whisper the name “Bob” by water coolers and in break rooms for years to come as the story of how he "stuck it to the man" morphs into urban legend.

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.