Uncivil Servants
When I was young I worked in a government laboratory as a dogsbody/bottle washer/radiation canary.

It's difficult to say who was the specific "office bastard", as everyone had their own little quirks. Phil, who groped me and was married? Geoff, who would go on and on about the Falklands? Bob, who dressed like a leather clone (until he found out that this was actually a gay thing) and set up the Dungeons & Dragons group? Bob 2, who never came back from the pub at lunchtime? Mark, whose bonhomie concealed rabid fascism? Eric, who was normal outside the presence of ether? Mrs Fittle, who had buried 2 husbands and sexually assaulted me in the lift? All par for the course.

And then Carl arrived from the Jobcentre. Carl came from the Worst Estate in East Anglia. He did not wash. He could not write. He could read, mostly by guesswork. He drank absolute alcohol from the bottle. He sniffed chloroform and passed out. He didn't do any work; it was too dangerous after he tipped radioactive tracer down the sink and we had to shut down the plumbing and call in a chemical incident. He lasted 10 days, and this was because he was arrested for raping his 12 year old sister.

Length? four wasted years.
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 15:07, 4 replies)

Was this
anywhere near Cambridge...?
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 15:23, closed)

...
Another East Anglian city, fortunately. Would the Fast Show give you a clue?
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 15:43, closed)

*click*
this story has it all: chemicals, unsavoury characters and pedaristic incest rape.

highly clickable
(JasperSinister is offering two tickets to the gun show, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 15:45, closed)

The Fast Show?
Never really watched it, I'm afraid. Norwich or Ipswich instead then?
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 16:32, closed)