"Press down hard"
Back in 1992, companies filing P60s would send two copies to the tax office. One copy would then go to the DSS (or DHSS, whatever it was back then), who would photograph it for microfiche.

Unfortunately, this was back in the day when the dot-matrix ribbon printer was king, and many a P60 would be too faint to photograph. This meant that the DSS sent it back to the tax office (I never could figure that bit out), where someone had to write over the figures in green biro.

You've probably guessed who that "someone" was.

THREE. FUCKING. DAYS.

Smoking was still allowed in the office, though all the smokers were banished into one corner, and I got the desk next to them. So, not only did I have cramp, I also stank of fags.

I would never thought I could have my day brightened by the notion of spending the afternoon in the file room checking that all the files were in order (this, surprisingly, wasn't a work-experience task - they were a weekly occurrence carried out by several members of staff).

Back at school, and we were all asked what we'd learned from our time

1. Never work in an office full of smokers
2. Do well at school so you can get a decent job so you don't have to do that kind of crap for a living
3. Signing the Official Secrets Act is much less exciting than you imagine it will be
4. Don't operate a shredder while wearing a tie

Length? Nearly lost a few inches in the shredder.
( le brian, Thu 10 May 2007, 21:57, Reply)