The TFW wasn't up to speed either by the look of things....

She was just going on what she had been told. Neither parties listened to myself or the other PR working there

"tannoy", now that's a blast from the past

Whilst the LCBO may have a monopoly on liquor sales, they don't appear to have a monopoly on thick jobsworths:

Dad slams Tesco for refusing to sell him beer as he's with 21-year-old daughter - Mirror Online

Totally thick policy

Tesco loses another customer

A new rum in Sask liquor stores, Lemon Hart Blackpool Spiced. It has a bit more of the salt and the sea about it than Sailor Jerry. About time they got another Guyanan rum in.

It's an old irritation of mine but I really don't like the term jobsworth.

"It's more 'n my job's worth to let you park there."

Well, it is isn't it? You want to park unlawfully and you want someone else specifically employed to uphold that rule to let you break the rule and risk their job. What makes you so special?

You want someone to turn a blind eye to that undeclared income; going through a red light; faulty bit of safety equipment; tell you the lab test result they typed up ready for the doctor; report the minutes of a confidential meeting; reveal the secret recipe; slip you that $100 from the till while nobody's looking; let you in without a ticket; park in that 'disabled parking' space etc etc

If it is their job to do something who gives you the right to belittle them?

Having said that...the Tesco example certainly appears to be a case not of someone doing their job but going a bit power mad. Not using common sense. That's what they should be criticised for.

Well this is worthwhile....and for his next trick he is going to burrow through an elephant

French artist Abraham Poincheval entombs himself in boulder - BBC News

Isn't that the popular meaning of jobsworth though, somebody with a small amount of power, that uses it to excess? Somebody dispensing with judgement, and applying often inane regulations to an over exacting degree.

For example, when my kid was around 3 I let him sit in the big part of the shopping trolley, and never had any comments until one day in Tesco, some young assistant strode up and instructed me that riding in the trolley was strictly prohibited. Naturally we complied, but he seemed like a complete jobsworth (for want of a better word) to me.

Don't forget that he could have been transferring dog poo from his shoes to the trolley, where people put their food, and any other nasty he may have on his clothes, so there is a genuine reason for the rule.

Hmmm...yeah I suppose you have point there

I don't think so. That would be 'little Hitler' which is also open to similar misuse.

I dunno, maybe you (general you) need to have done one of those jobs where the term is slung at those doing the job. The most obvious one is someone having to apply the rules for the greater part of their job, like a traffic warden or other parking attendant. They have a little power but are expected to use it. Of course, there may be some who relish using it.

I gave a few examples because in all walks of life there are situations where one could turn a blind eye or could reveal information one knows but it's not 'right' to do so.

Everyone just thinks that there are good reasons not to do so for their situation but someone else is a jobsworth.

While I'm in whingeing mode it's the same as the other stereotypes. Milkmen clank their bottles (or cartons ) deliberately at 5.00am; dustmen leave rubbish strewn over the path and the bins thrown over; 'the taxman' is evil; postmen are lazy and can't read addresses; lawyers are grasping scoundrels; businessmen are all useless fatcats; secretaries are chatterboxes who sit around filing their nails (especially the male ones); any number of folk "don't know their arse from their elbow" etc etc..
Everyone believes them but in many cases the same lazy stereotypes are applied to their own field of work and they know them to be false. So what happened to "hang on a minute, it's not true that I carry out my job with sadistic fervour, in the rare moments when I actually have something to do other than drinking tea and counting my expenses...so maybe the same isn't true of people in other jobs similarly stereotyped..."


Exactly.

See, you get public information films on the telly showing the dangers of parking near a junction and we all nod and tut-tut at the thoughtless driver.

But then when "you" do it and the traffic warden tells you to move on you say "I'll only be two minutes" - and it only takes a few seconds for that to amount to loss of life or a lifetime of disability.

"I tell you, he was a right jobsworth, I was only popping in for a paper."

On a forum like this I thought I could be assured it would be understood. Maybe a poster like yourself doesn't use such old words and has a more modern vocabulary

Got a letter in the mail yesterday from the car rental firm we used in France saying that I was spotted via some traffic camera speeding and that I would be getting a fine Not sure yet of the fine but based on the time of day I was either on a 110 km/h road or a 130 km/h road.

Last time I got a speeding ticket was in 2012 in Spain...same thing..traffic camera. Caught going 113 km/h in a 100 km/h zone and they sent me a fine...bloody jobsworths (just trying to connect it to earlier postings in this thread). No connection with my Ontario drivers licence or insurance.

Before that it was 1990 in Markham so I'm not in the dangerous drivers category.

All 3 tickets on manuals. Unfortuanately in that regard I've had a manual for the last 3 years here in Ontario so I could be due for a local ticket.

My husband just received a fine from France from December, he was doing 59 in a 50, it was a fair cop and we expected something as we saw the camera flash.