Letter to the Editor

In an effort to out state employees that take excessive overtime, the Tennessean (Gannett Press) has put a searchable database up on their website of peoples salaries and what they actually took home last year.  This made me very angry.  So, I turned green, swelled up, my pants (now capris) turned purple.   I flexed my intellectual muscle and wrote the following letter to the editor.

I really must object to the listing on your website stating the amounts of money that state employees make.  I understand the public has a right to know how tax dollars are spent or misspent as the case may be.  But, as a state employee that gets lower pay than my counterparts in every other state, I see my rights as an individual citizen have been violated. 

In the search for people who abuse overtime and your decision to out them, you have punished people who are not guilty of taking advantage of the system.  Your reporting would have been just as effective had you not published the persons name except in the most serious offenses.

I do not tell people how much I make because it is none of their business.  The Tennessean, in their much better judgment, decided to just go ahead and tell people for me. 

I realize that as a state employee my pay is public record and anyone can obtain this information.  In the past this was always protected by the effort that it took to do so.  The Tennessean has made it accessible online for anyone, not just the citizens of the state of Tennessee, to see.

This is irresponsible journalism.