Tuesday 11 January 2011

You are talking bulls***

IT is now official! The Northern Ireland Civil Service talks bulls***!

The Plain English Campaign has awarded the NICS its not so prestigious ‘Golden Bull Award’.

The award was given to NICS for this wonderful piece of prose:

“If the annual leave request that you are entering is less than a full day on the First Day or the Last Day, then please select Hours from the drop down list of values in the Part Days Unit of Measure field. Then select the amount of hours on the first day in the Fraction of Start Date or the last day in the Fraction of End Date field. If the absence is only for one day, use the Fraction of Start Date field to record the hours absent.”

This almost Homer-ian odyssey of word play is all about taking half-a-day’s leave.

In the past the private sector has been quick to criticise the amount of sick leave that civil servants take. We suggest that it may all be because of the stress caused by trying to take a half-a-day’s leave.

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