Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun chiefly UK A
minor worker whorefuses to beflexible in theapplication ofrules to help aclient orcustomer .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It's why the word "jobsworth" is unique to Britain.
A Western Heart 2010
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Unfortunately the "jobsworth" I asked was insistent that I should join the back of a long queue of the general public, standing outside in the pouring rain, waiting for the security clearance I knew I already had if I could only find my pass.
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Because of the "jobsworth" attitude of many of the civil servants & various EU type regulations, I ended up doing about 2 months worth of REAL work that I could have done in a non govermental company!
Army Rumour Service 2010
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Unfortunately the "jobsworth" I asked was insistent that I should join the back of a long queue of the general public, standing outside in the pouring rain, waiting for the security clearance I knew I already had if I could only find my pass.
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It also included a "jobsworth" award for overzealous officials.
The Guardian World News Haroon Siddique, Mark Tran 2009
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Rather than providing information, transparency and honesty, the face of BA was shouting at customers with a 'jobsworth' attitude.
Planet TW 2009
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'' UK plc must distance itself from the 'jobsworth' approach and those instances where health and safety is used as a convenient excuse for not doing something. ''
Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news 2009
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I'd wondered, a bit, why some of them had such 'jobsworth' attitudes to passengers - I'd imagined it was just being tired from long-haul flights, but it sounds as if it's more the nature of the beast.
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2009
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'jobsworth' Council Officers are not enthusiastic about sorting out illegal travellers 'sites that are dotted around the neighbourhood.
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Another despicable British "jobsworth" (rigid and petty rule-follower): "A coach driver refused to let a woman get off his vehicle near her home - even though she was desperate to get to her dying mum's hospital bedside.
WICKED THOUGHTS 2009
sionnach commented on the word jobsworth
A person, usually a security guard, park keeper or a parking attendant who says "Its more than my job’s worth" when enforcing some petty regulation.
The BBC was famous for a particular breed of jobsworth. One of these is supposed to have been on duty at Broadcasting House when King Haakon of Norway appeared at the Security Desk, gave the jobsworth his name and told him that he was due to participate in a programme in studio 6. The jobsworth went to ring the studio. A moment later he put his hand over the phone and called out,"Excuse me, Sir, where was it you said you was King of?"
December 20, 2007
uselessness commented on the word jobsworth
I'm rather surprised this has nothing to do with His Steveness.
December 20, 2007
bilby commented on the word jobsworth
The context of this is that both these names are famous footballers, Beckenbauer a World Cup winner with Germany in 1974 and Ibrahimovic the current captain of Sweden and AC Milan.
"A Brazilian man named Franz Beckenbauer has registered the birth of his son Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Lima da Silva was born in Recife, Pernambuco.
His father, Franz Beckenbauer, claims he experienced some problems at the registry office, with a jobsworth not sure about the given name ‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic’.
He explained: 'The woman said she had to send to the judge to approve. I objected… If my name was Beckenbauer, why it could not be Ibrahimovic?'”
- Rob Parker, 'Franz Beckenbauer welcomes his son Zlatan Ibrahimovic into the world', offthepost.info, 25 June 2012.
June 26, 2012