Over the course of a year, she and a number of colleagues had concerns about the boss's "work habits," she would tell an adjudicator: sleeping during meetings, playing solitaire on his computer, arriving late, leaving early, lack of vision and strategic planning.

In 2004, Lynn Nessrallah, a public servant for 26 years, had an unusual, almost cartoonish problem with her boss: on occasion, he used to sleep on the job.

It became so bad, that she began to collect photo evidence in advance of a formal complaint.

Before it ended, the story would grow to bizarre heights, a shuddering view of the inner workings of labour relations in the federal government.

Ms. Nessrallah, now 51, was first suspended for three days -- reduced to one on appeal -- then continued to fight the discipline with a private lawyer, only to be driven onto sick leave for more than two years.

Three years after the picture-taking, she finally returned to work last week, part-time, out $10,000 in legal fees spent to overturn $200 in lost pay.

"It was worth the money, I think," she said in an interview this week, emphasizing the principle at stake.

As for Mr. Sleepy? In the midst of the suspension proceeding, he was promoted, Ms. Nessrallah reports.

"You know, it's sad, at the end of the day, when people actually think we would have been better turning a blind eye to it all."

In 2004, Ms. Nessrallah was a political activities adviser at the Public Service Commission in L'Esplanade Laurier. Her boss was a lawyer, supervising between five and 10 people and, according to his classification, earning roughly $90,000 annually.

Over the course of a year, she and a number of colleagues had concerns about the boss's "work habits," she would tell an adjudicator: sleeping during meetings, playing solitaire on his computer, arriving late, leaving early, lack of vision and strategic planning.

In January 2005, walking past his open office door, she noticed he appeared to be asleep at his desk. She decided to gather evidence. Ms. Nessrallah took a photograph with a Palm Pilot-type device, later e-mailing the image to four colleagues, with a sarcastic remark.

"Warning: This is what happens if you work too hard!" the heading read. "Well, at least he made up for the time he slept by playing cards at 4:30! Pas de farce!" (No joke!)

Not long after, the concerns of Ms. Nessrallah were taken to the manager's supervisor, Dal Hines, a director general at the commission.

At a hearing held in September 2007, Mr. Hines said he, too, on one occasion had seen the manager asleep during working hours. (The manager's identity was protected in the report.)

Mr. Hines, now retired, responded by meeting with a number of the manager's subordinates, then hiring a consultant to engage in a "Group & Leadership Effectiveness Review."

The consultant, hired in March 2005, met with the main parties and devised a series of 10 to 12 "coaching initiative sessions" to last about two hours each.

"He did all this stuff and got a coach," remarked Ms. Nessrallah.

However, before the contract could be completed, Mr. Hines was alerted to the existence of the photograph and accompanying message.

He responded by handing Ms. Nessrallah a letter of suspension, docking her three days' pay. "I find that your distribution of this material was a wilful act on your part to bring your manager into disrepute with his employees," he wrote.

Nothing of the kind, says Ms. Nessrallah. She says she is a whistleblower who was merely gathering evidence to make a fairly serious allegation against her boss -- about conduct that was affecting the climate of the workplace.

"We just saw the fact that a person was sleeping on the job. We saw it as a problem in the workplace. There could be very valid reasons for it occurring, but we thought it had to be addressed."

She and her lawyer, Sean McGee, underline how difficult it is in a large bureaucracy to question the conduct of your superior. "We were very, very fearful of reprisals and, lo and behold, it was with good reason," she said.

Mr. McGee said his firm has often dealt with labour issues brought forward by federal public servants.

"People worry about reprisals, career limits," he said this week. "There is a huge barrier to someone actually coming forward and saying 'I'm telling you that this is going on and nobody is doing anything about it'. It's an enormous problem."

On the day she took the photo -- Jan. 4, 2005 -- Ms. Nessrallah said she was on a tight deadline to complete guidelines for federal employees who wanted to run as election candidates.

She was in a rush to get an answer from her manager on proposed changes. She testified she first found him asleep, then playing a card game on his computer, then gone early for the day. That night, she e-mailed the picture to four colleagues.

Ms. Nessrallah has suffered from the effects of multiple sclerosis since 1988. The stress of the suspension caused a flareup in her symptoms and she went on medical leave, eventually being paid roughly 70 per cent of her salary.

Ms. Nessrallah admits the remarks she sent with the photo were inappropriate and she has apologized for making them. Were she intending to be malicious, she said, she would have distributed the photo in a much wider circle.

"I took the photo from the hallway. To me, that's not an invasion of privacy. It is what any passerby would have seen. What if the president had been in our area, with a deputy minister from somewhere else?"

She is hoping, eventually, to return to working three or four days a week, health permitting.

"I've got MS and I don't fall asleep on the job. I don't sleep at work nor would I expect to get away with sleeping at work."

Contact Kelly Egan at 613-726-5896 or by e-mail, kegan@thecitizen.canwest.com

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008