Like Dave McK above, I started working life in the Civil Service, although this was in the early '70's when the dreaded VAT was about to be introduced. My job was to interview Asian trader in Southall (West London, high Asian population). I was an Executive Officer 'cos I'd got some A levels, and had the services of Ben, a full-time Clerical Officer who was of Indian origin. As he spoke Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu I was allowed to take Ben along on trader visits as my interpreter. Without fail, the Asian traders would completely forget their grasp of English when I mentioned that I was from Customs & Excise making VAT enquiries, but I would then wheel in Ben as my secret weapon to complete the interview I always finished my visits in the morning and then typed up the reports in the afternoon. Ben, meanwhile, would sleep each and every afternoon at his desk and we didn't bother to wake him up as we had no other work for him to do. As Ben was in his upper-50's, retirement at 60 was not far off so there was no point in trying to get rid of him early. I left that office after a few months but I expect that Ben snoozed on until his 60'th birthday and retirement on an inflation-proofed CS pension. I wonder if the Civil Service is going to raise it's retirement age beyond the present 60yrs, which could lead to some interesting situations for the many Bens who I'm sure still lurk in most CS offices.