Talk:Jobsworth

This seems a pretty accurate description to me, although I haven't heard of the song cited.

OED

The OED entry for Jobsworth is as follows.... http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/jobsworth?view=uk --LiamE 14:59, 2 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

George Melly

I'm pretty sure Taylor's song comfortably predates the George Melly reference in the article. --Bonalaw 20:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

idiom

Best to properly define the old idiom from which the term was extracted to explain recent derisive uses for the neologism. JonMar 16:37, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"his" vs. "their"

Ugh, what was wrong with "their"? The new version is ugly and I've never seen Wikipedia use this style {"him" with an asterisk and explanatory note}. I think this breaks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_self-references . The linguists on language log have a whole series of postings pointing out that singular uses of "they" and "their" are valid and used in eveything from Shakespeare to the King James bible (e.g. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001582.html ). I'll revert if no-one objects ...

Company man

The article states that the American term company man is equivalent to jobsworth. That wasn't my understanding of either term, so I read the Comapany Man article, and it confirms that the meaning is completely different. A 'company man' is basically a 'yes man', while a jobsworth is an individual who takes pride in inflexibly enforcing petty rules and regulations. --80.176.142.11 (talk) 20:06, 30 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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Urban Dictionary reference?

The Urban Dictionary as a reference for Wikipedia? Surely that should be the other way around?! 82.43.194.184 (talk) 14:21, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fred Kite

I believe that the shop steward Fred Kite (Peter Sellers) in the film I'm All Right Jack would also be one of the earliest 'jobsworths' to appear on film.

The difference being that his enforcement of petty rules was to further the aims of his Trade union; the modern jobsworth does it for his/her personal enjoyment. Saga City (talk) 13:54, 13 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A jobsworth's motives may be as diverse as anyone else's; the decisive property is the pedantic use of rules to avoid doing work—or to set up a negotiating position in which it's established that the work in question goes beyond the jobsworth's obligations (i.e. you aren't entitled to expect it of him, so you'll have to give him something for it). For that, Kite qualifies admirably ! 84.215.6.188 (talk) 11:56, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not in my job description

"Not in my job description" etc. is a completely attitude to that of a jobsworth. 91.106.128.85 (talk) 10:13, 24 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No, the jobsworth phrase is directed at customers/clients/passengers/violators in the general public "Not in my job description" is directed against employers/managers in the business or public sector entity that employs the jobsworth. Frequently, of course, they are the tools of the same individual who choses to be uncooperative to the world in general. Saga City (talk) 13:47, 13 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I respectfully disagree. A jobsworth is equally unhelpful to his fellow employees; and, especially where they're in another department and don't have authority to boss him about, he's exhibiting exactly the same attitude towards them as he would towards customers &c. In such a case, "not in my job description" is entirely within the jobsworth character description. Also, I suspect the original meant s/completely/complementary/ above, 84.215.6.188 (talk) 11:50, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]