UM: Computer games don’t affect productivity

Montana state employees will no longer be able to resort to Solitaire during free time in the office, though many University of Montana employees said they don’t find the game to be a distraction.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer recently ordered that all games, like Solitaire and Minesweeper, be removed from state-owned computers in his jurisdiction.

“We’re not allowed to use our computers for personal use,” said Stacey Brackett, a cashier for UM Business Services.

Montana state policy dictates that state computers are not to be used for “non-state-related activities (including games or software that is not required for an employee’s job responsibilities).”

Brackett said games like Solitaire and Minesweeper aren’t even on her office computer.

She said Travis Tolzien, network administrator for UM’s Administration and Finance departments, used to remove the games that would come with their new computers but doesn’t anymore because there has never been a problem with productivity.

“It’s ridiculous to us that someone would complain about not having Solitaire,” said Tammy Yedinak, assistant to the deans in the UM School of Business Administration, referring to herself and her co-workers.

Yedinak said she is usually far too busy to be concerned with playing solitaire.

Jennie Mitschke, administrative associate in UM’s Department of Psychology, said she’s never seen anybody playing games during work hours, and she doesn’t think having games like Solitaire on their computers would have any affect on productivity.

Although, Mitschke said, she does think employees work harder when they’re not micromanaged.

Tyler Trevor, associate commissioner of the Montana Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, said when they receive new computers, they manually remove the games that come with them.

“It’s more just a practice than a policy,” said Trevor.

He said that whether state employees have Solitaire installed on their computers probably has no effect on their productivity because the computers are connected to the Internet and if an employee wants to play a game, they can find one.

“The Solitaire that comes with Microsoft Office is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.