Jobsworth

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A jobsworth is a person who uses their job description in a deliberately obstructive way. (1) The term is most often applied to public service low-level officials, who have little authority, and so the 'jobsworth' response gives them the only power they are likely to get. The true jobsworth is one who knows the rules backwards, knows that there is flexibility and chooses not to use it. It's important to distinguish them from someone who really has no flexibility and really would lose their job. For example, the person at the ticket barrier who applies the 'no passengers allowed to board from one minute before departure' rule, when the driver is still nowhere to be found, is a true jobsworth. The bus driver who refuses to let a passenger off in the middle lane at traffic lights, however, is not - there is a real safety issue; the driver would lose their job (and probably licence). Jobsworth is defined by attitude, not the real or potential risk to continued employment.

The name is taken from the line "It's more than my job's worth ... " The term has recently been popularized in the UK, in a song of the same name by Jeremy Taylor. That's Life!, Esther Rantzen's UK television program featured a 'jobsworth of the week.' George Melly, journalist and jazz musician, gave a working definition of the term during a short talk piece on BBC-2 TV in the mid-1970s.

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