CALIFORNIA (RNN) – For nearly four years, an employee at the California Department of Motor Vehicles slept at her desk for hours instead of working, costing the state more than $40,000, according to an audit on state worker misconduct.
The unidentified key data operator is still working for the DMV, and her supervisors, who were allegedly aware of her habit of sleeping on the job, have received no punishment.
Officials with the California State Auditor’s Office say the employee slept for more than 2,200 hours of work time from February 2014 to December 2017. In addition, she only completed half of her given workload each day, as noted by her annual evaluations.
The employee’s supervisor told auditors she believed the woman only slept through 20 to 30 minutes of work daily. She would wake her up three to four times each day.
However, witnesses said the woman slept for hours at a time, and two of them estimated she spent at least three hours of her work day asleep. They also said the supervisor didn’t always wake up the sleeping woman.
Other data operators often had to finish the woman’s work for her, according to witnesses, and they said she made so many mistakes when entering data that they didn’t trust her.
Even so, the state auditor alleges supervisors did nothing to prevent the employee’s behavior, only providing her with memos that her work and sleeping were not acceptable.
The supervisors said they were reluctant to take action because they thought the woman may have suffered from a medical condition that caused her to fall asleep.
Ultimately, the auditors objected to the behavior from both the employee and her supervisors, which they believe cost the state more than $40,000.
They suggested the DMV should discipline both parties, but the agency reported they couldn’t punish the employee because the issue had not been properly documented.
The woman’s supervisors were provided with training to make sure this situation doesn’t happen again but were not punished because they didn’t have other performance issues, according to the audit.
Finally, in March, the DMV warned the employee not to sleep anymore, or she could face consequences.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California residents have been complaining so much about their long waits at state DMVs that lawmakers have scheduled a legislative hearing for Aug. 7 on the issue.
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