Many, many, many years ago I worked for a government department, supposedly
as a personal assistant to a high-up civil servant. My first task was to
type up the written sentence he had given me and pass it back to him. He
went into a meeting while I waited in my office. He came back after about an
hour with my typed sentence expanded into two much longer sentences. I typed
those (in triple spacing) and gave it back. Another meeting and another
typing. After a week, he proudly had a 30 page report bound and
distributed - all from that one sentence. I'd already handed in my notice by
then, partly because the job obviously wasn't what I'd been led to believe,
but mainly because of the sheer waste of time and futility of what was being
done.The excuse for what was being done was that there should be no
ambiguity in anything being said.
I was offered a move to another department, but I declined.
If you think I'm joking, I'm, not - it really did happen. Have I breached
the Official Secrets Act which I signed?
I suspect that still happens, especially in the EU.
Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK
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