LOAFING ON THE JOB ?

Grey River Argus, 20 November 1946, Page 5

LOAFING ON THE JOB ?

British Civil Servants

ACCOUNTANT’S FIGURES. (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent')

LONDON. Nov. 18. ' Civil Servants’ tea in Whitehall is a music hall .joke of long standing, hut figures taken by an accountant indicate that it is no joke. Mr. N. E R. Clifton, head of a London firm, of accountants, estimates that at least 100 working hours are wasted weekly by civil servants in four Government offices queueing for tea and newspapers.

Aftei’ queueing for 30 minutes at one Ministry he was told to call back in one hour. He decided to “look around.” “At 4 p.m. I found 374 people queueing foi’ newspapers which did not arrive till 4.40 p.m. They ' were clerks, typists and messengers. Among them was the official who had told me to return in an hour.

“I had a watch kept at three points on three days in October and I watched personally on three other days. The queues of people' from nearby offices totalled 127, 117, 91, 127, 92, and 37. ,Cn the last day it was rain? ing.

“On October 22, I was about at 2.45 p.m. Clerks of both sexes were coming out of Government offices and returning about 20 minutes later. They went to a teashop, apparently to supplement their office tea.” stated Mr Clifton.