Ineptitude in all its forms

[MartG]

Today I came across a news item which I found amusing, but which doesn't seem to fit in any of the long-running joke threads, so I thought I'd try creating a new one.

This thread is intended to be a place to share all those things which could be typified by the phrase "You had one job....!"

Anyway, here's a link to the article

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2016/01/ministers-ar...

[RobinOakapple]

That was a mistake almost certainly by a member of staff, not ineptitude.

[BJG1]

RobinOakapple said:

That was a mistake almost certainly by a member of staff, not ineptitude.

They had one job!

[RobinOakapple]

BJG1 said:

RobinOakapple said:

That was a mistake almost certainly by a member of staff, not ineptitude.

They had one job!

Most people have more than one job to do at any one time. In any case, placing people in the right place and time to meet other people requires cooperation from all concerned. It's all very well laughing at people for whom things have gone wrong, if that's what you find funny, but ideally you need to find out all the facts before deciding whose screwup it was.

[BJG1]

RobinOakapple said:

Most people have more than one job to do at any one time. In any case, placing people in the right place and time to meet other people requires cooperation from all concerned. It's all very well laughing at people for whom things have gone wrong, if that's what you find funny, but ideally you need to find out all the facts before deciding whose screwup it was.

Bet you're fun at parties...

[PoleDriver]

RobinOakapple said:

Most people have more than one job to do at any one time. In any case, placing people in the right place and time to meet other people requires cooperation from all concerned. It's all very well laughing at people for whom things have gone wrong, if that's what you find funny, but ideally you need to find out all the facts before deciding whose screwup it was.

It was you, wasn't it!

[RobinOakapple]

BJG1 said:

RobinOakapple said:

Most people have more than one job to do at any one time. In any case, placing people in the right place and time to meet other people requires cooperation from all concerned. It's all very well laughing at people for whom things have gone wrong, if that's what you find funny, but ideally you need to find out all the facts before deciding whose screwup it was.

Bet you're fun at parties...

We all have different senses of humour, I like stuff that is actually funny and while I agree that the picture is amusing it's hardly evidence of ineptitude. Being incompetent isn't actually a very good way of becoming a minister although it might seem that way to people who dislike politicians. I dislike most of them myself, but not because I think they are thick (which they usually aren't).

[vanordinaire]

In the eighties, I was working on a building site doing preparation groundworks for a new site. We had a 1 metre deep trench to dig near to where I knew there was a major gas pipe. Using drawings, I marked out exactly where I thought the gas pipe crossed the line of the trench and set a 3 metre restriction zone to be hand dug to find the pipe before bringing in an excavator. I gave the instructions and left the team to it, 30 minutes later, all hell broke loose. They'd hand dug down next to the marker poles at both ends of the restricted zone, found nothing so brought in an excavator to dig out the middle section and hit an 18 inch gas main exactly (to the milimetre) where I told them it would be. Cue fire brigade and gas board everywhere,site closed for the rest of the week, and the Western half of Edinburgh not able to cook their dinner that night.
I was potentially in a lot of trouble till the foreman of the team happily admitted that he'd understood my instructions quite clearly but that he thought it was overkill/elf and safety gone mad so he ignored me.

[cirian75]

vanordinaire said:

In the eighties, I was working on a building site doing preparation groundworks for a new site. We had a 1 metre deep trench to dig near to where I knew there was a major gas pipe. Using drawings, I marked out exactly where I thought the gas pipe crossed the line of the trench and set a 3 metre restriction zone to be hand dug to find the pipe before bringing in an excavator. I gave the instructions and left the team to it, 30 minutes later, all hell broke loose. They'd hand dug down next to the marker poles at both ends of the restricted zone, found nothing so brought in an excavator to dig out the middle section and hit an 18 inch gas main exactly (to the milimetre) where I told them it would be. Cue fire brigade and gas board everywhere,site closed for the rest of the week, and the Western half of Edinburgh not able to cook their dinner that night.
I was potentially in a lot of trouble till the foreman of the team happily admitted that he'd understood my instructions quite clearly but that he thought it was overkill/elf and safety gone mad so he ignored me.

I assume he got sacked very quickly.

[Monkeylegend]

That Santa bloke, all he had to do is deliver the £10k diamond ring I bought you for Christmas, and he forgot dear.

[MartG]

[mickk]

Like this you mean?

[mondeoman]

Perfect, keep em coming

[Eric Mc]

Have to say, it took me a few seconds to work out what the problem was. Then again, I've had a few glasses of wine. (Hic).

[zollburgers]

[mickk]

That can't be real, surely.

[MartG]

mickk said:

Like this you mean?

[mgtony]

mickk said:

That can't be real, surely.

I'm mortar-fied.

[Digger]

Perhaps one of the more infamous/famous ones, hoax or not, who knows . . .

[Johnnytheboy]

Not that inept, but I put this up on my work blog the other day: