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Italian Mayor Governs With Facebook, Posts Photos to Call Out Lazy Workers

by Amar Toor on January 17, 2011 at 08:30 AM

In the U.S., politicians use Facebook to connect with their constituents, to announce new initiatives, or, in some cases, to recklessly rabble rouse. Political leaders in Italy, however, are apparently more interested in using the social network to publicly humiliate lazy employees.

That's exactly what the mayor of Bari did, when he posted photos of public workers who were being particularly slothful. The mayor, Michele Emiliano, began his Facebook crackdown with his city's municipal transport employees, and invited his constituents to help out by sending him their own photos of city workers slacking off. Upon receiving incriminating photos, he would post them to his Facebook account, and ask penetrating questions, like, "Why aren't these people working?"

Then, the politician turned his attention to Bari's garbage men, after a concerned citizen sent him a picture of their neighborhood's trash-filled street, and asked for his help. Springing to action, Emiliano dug up a photo of three sanitation workers not doing sanitation work, posted it to Facebook, and wrote: "If anyone recognizes someone in this picture, they could help us understand why their colleagues were talking to each other instead of working, as we all expect them to do."

Unless the workers were sleeping, playing bocce ball, or wearing signs that read "sciopero," it's hard to imagine how a single photo of three guys standing around could be seen as damning evidence of their negligence. Besides, Emiliano's tactics actually seem to be working: Bari's transport and sanitation agencies have already launched investigations into their employees' work habits, and officials are vowing to figure out how their employees suddenly turned lazy. Emiliano could've probably found a more elegant, less dramatic way to go about highlighting his city's fiscal profligacy. But at least he's doing his part to cut corners, right? After all, why should Italians spend their hard-earned tax money on indolent employees, when they can spend them on their prime minister's vacations and underage sex kittens?

Tags: bari, facebook, italy, mayor, photos, politics, shame, Silvio Berlusconi, SilvioBerlusconi, SocialNetworking, top, transportation, waste

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