There's a story floating around the internet that's so good that it can't be true – but I really, really want it to be. According to a Verizon security blog, a developer employed by an American company has been caught outsourcing his own job to China – giving him much-needed extra time to watch YouTube videos about cats.

The Register reports that the wheeze was discovered when an American critical infrastructure company hired Verizon to set up an internet system that would allow staff to work from home. Verizon discovered that the traffic logs “showed a regular series of logins to the company's main server from Shenyang, China, using the credentials of the firm's top programmer, ‘Bob’”. At first they suspected some malware was to blame and so decided to study Bob’s computer habits to find out the source. To their surprise, the real reason why someone was logging on from China was far more benign, malign and brilliant:

Verizon investigators found that [Bob] had hired a software consultancy in Shenyang to do his programming work for him, and had FedExed them his two-factor authentication token so they could log into his account. He was paying them a fifth of his six-figure salary to do the work and spent the rest of his time on other activities.

What did those other "activities" consist of? Apparently it was:

9:00 a.m. – Arrive and surf Reddit for a couple of hours. Watch cat videos
11:30 a.m. – Take lunch
1:00 p.m. – Ebay time
2:00-ish p.m – Facebook updates, LinkedIn
4:30 p.m. – End-of-day update e-mail to management
5:00 p.m. – Go home

Throw in a steady diet of custard cream biscuits and this is my idea of heaven – and it wasn’t doing Bob’s productivity any harm, either. According to one source, “His [work] was clean, well written, and submitted in a timely fashion. Quarter after quarter, his performance review noted him as the best developer in the building.”

I'm actually surprised no one has tried this before.

Though I would think a computer guy would be able to cover his tracks a bit better. (Perhaps the Chinese programmer was actually an improvement?)

I thought of you too Shawn but decided to pick on Kevin. I see no problem with getting help on a project by project basis. Even more long term if needed. Having an employee pay someone in another country to do his job will he plays on the net without the knowledge and consent of the employer raises real issues. (Unless he spends all day at PackersHome.com)