Here’s some advice for individuals who set the bar low: If you do manage to land that dream job that essentially pays you big bucks to do nothing, don’t ever, under any circumstances, brag about the fact that you have such a job.
That’s a lesson Mr. David Bookstaver just learned the hard way.
According to the New York Post, Mr. Bookstaver was just fired from his longtime job as communications director for the Office of Court Administration. In that position, Mr. Bookstaver had earned, more than $166,000 per year.
A strange series of events ultimately led to Bookstaver’s termination.
‘I’m not doing anything’
The New York York Post had been questioning Bookstaver about the ins and outs of his job responsibilities, and things had been going well enough. But then Bookstaver did something we’ve all done on occasion. He accidentally dialed somebody on his cell phone.
Unfortunately for Bookstaver, the person he “butt-dialed” happened to be the New York Post reporter who the former communications director had been talking with. More unfortunately still, Bookstaver “unwittingly left a four-minute voicemail while chatting with at least two other people,” the New York Post reports.
In that voicemail, which you can listen to here, Bookstaver says:
“I spoke to [the reporter] on the record for awhile. I said, ‘I’m in a much less visible position; that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything. But, frankly, look, the bottom line: The story’s true. I’m not doing anything. I barely show up to work and I’ve been caught.”
As you can imagine, the Office of Court Administration wasn’t happy. Following the story, Bookstaver was fired.
Office of Court Administration spokesman Lucian Chalfen issued a statement, read read:
“New Yorkers look to their Court System for excellence and accountability, and we will always act to apply those standards to all of our employees all across New York State. While there are occasional abuses of office, we take those abuses extremely seriously and whenever we learn about them we will always act to hold the offenders accountable.”
Adding to the loss of a high-paying job he barely shows up for, Bookstaver, 58, was just seven weeks away from a planned October 1st retirement that would have bolstered his taxpayer-funded pension.
