Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the sacked Telstra contractor said that although he regretted his decision to tamper with the results of a ZDNet Australia survey questioning the telco's value for money, he was amused at the idea of doing so. This view, he said, was shared by many of the company's staff, including senior management.
-It was not management sanctioned, although the staff who sat near me all thought it was extremely funny. Given all the bad press Telstra gets, I thought it would barely be a blip on the radar"
Despite repeated assurances from Telstra spokesman Stuart Gray in the weeks following the incident that it had not terminated the contractor's employment as a result of the vote tampering, the former employee said he was quickly handed his walking papers by senior management.
-Telstra's response was to sack me. It was decided that that was 'the best thing for all concerned'. Though everyone who knew thought it was incredibly funny," he said. -Even Stuart [Gray] laughed about it."
-Telstra management didn't confront me. When I saw the story where you 'busted Telstra for rigging', I immediately informed my team leader (who had a good laugh). I was, in fact, just going to respond to the feedback and say I did it purely out of amusement. But since it mentioned Stuart Gray (public relations) and Telstra security were looking at it, I figured I'd better fess up. My team leader asked me to call Stuart, which I did, and explained what happened, and Stuart asked me to e-mail himself and Telstra security about what happened. That was last thing Friday afternoon. On Tuesday after the long weekend, without being consulted, or asked questions for more info, I was asked to leave. I do know that it escalated quite high within Telstra management, but besides my initial e-mail, I wasn't asked for any more info.
Another Telstra spokesperson, Michael Herskope, denied all the claims made by the self-confessed poll rigger, and said its management team had always acted in a professional manner by treating the issue with the seriousness it deserved.
-Senior management obviously regarded the matter quite seriously. Hence the termination of the contractor's contract term. He was terminated. We do not endorse or condone that sort of conduct," Herskope said. -It was a breach of our computer/e-mail policy which is supposed to be for business purposes only and this clearly was not that."
Herskope also refuted claims made by the former Telstra contractor that Telstra had slapped a media gag on its employees in the wake of the scandal and said the telco had nothing to hide, and therefore nothing to gain, from silencing its employees.
-I totally refute that, it's simply not the case. I don't know who it was that would have said that. We're not trying to gag people. The truth is the truth in this situation - we're not trying to hide anything here. We're not trying to hamper or conceal any facts of this matter. Everybody has a right to speak."
The now-jobless techie said that, for the record, he is not a customer of Telstra's Big Pond Internet service because it's not the -type of service [he'd] be willing to pay for".
Hmmm... Senior management thought it was funny:
"...he was amused at the idea of doing so. This view, he said, was shared by many of the company’s staff, including *senior management*."
yet they sacked him?
"...the former employee said he was quickly handed his walking papers by *senior management*."