Help please... what is the name of the American equivalent of a 'jobsworth'? From Wiki A jobsworth is a person who uses the (typically small) authority of their job in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner. It characterises one who upholds petty rules even at the expense of effectiveness or efficiency.
I've known a few people like this over the years, but the words I've used to describe them probably aren't what you're looking for. I'm not sure if there's a single word for it. If there isn't, there should be! The behaviour described in the definition of jobsworth is what I would say someone is doing when they are "on a power trip."
I don't know if there is that checks all the boxes. A "stickler" is obsessed with small rules, a "micro-manager" is obsessed with small rules at the expense of efficiency, but neither of those really captures the spirit of "delights at obstruction."
There might be some misunderstanding here about the term. It's not necessarily applied to people who demand that their subordinates follow every little rule. It's most commonly used when you encounter someone who sticks to the pettiest little rule to be obstructive towards a member of the public. The traffic warden who will insist on giving you a parking ticket because you're 10 seconds over the allowed time while you're trying to get your screaming child to calm down. The train station employee who won't give you directions because it's not his job. The word comes from the phrase "it's more than my job's worth", said by someone who refuses to bend the rules despite it being more efficient if they just did so.
I've never heard of jobsworth but we all know the type. Actually, often there are two distinct types: those that are on the spectrum and may be a stickler for rules and regulations and don't understand certain social nuances, etc., and just straight up jerks (to put it as polite as possible). Depending on the job function, I would call them 'glorified hall monitors'.
Exactly. So do you guys in the US use a similar word or is it just a British-ism. I get the impression if a Brit called someone a 'jobsworth', most Americans would not catch their drift.
Can anyone tell me what the deal is with "I've been sat" in the UK? The Present Perfect Progressive Tense in American (and should be the UK as well) is "I've been sitting." I'm pretty sure the "sat" version is slang, the equivalent of "People be like" or something in American, but I've come across it in books and even seen people on this forum make suggestions to fix a sentence by including this grammatically wonky structure. When and how did this become something otherwise proper speakers use on the reg?
I saw a trailer for the upcoming House of the Dragon season where someone said "She's sitting my throne." I immediatley said "On."
Recently I was going to pop in here and ask why an apartment in England is a Flat, but I googled it (turns out it's my friend) and learned it originally meant an entire floor of a building, later modified to mean a suite or apartment. Important lesson—a brownstone flat is not the same thing as a flat brown stone.
It is a colloquialism, but one in common usage. The correct phrase is still "I was sitting", not "I was sat". No other verb is treated the same way. For example, add an "h" into the verb in those phrases, and it no longer works and takes on a rather different meaning.
So, slang, as I said. I still don't know why people are using it as if it's correct. You wouldn't find "People be like" in literature or serious grammatical advice on WF.
I don't think you really find it in written work, but it's common usage. It's a bit like people who use "fewer" or "less" incorrectly - you see and hear that all the time. If someone's been suggesting it on this forum, it's wrong, except when it's used in dialogue to make it more authentic.
You'd use "I was sat" to indicate that you were not the agent of your own sitting - say, the seating plan determined where "you were sat"
Brits have regional dialects, which carry through into written as well as the spoken word. Wiltshire for example. I done good I done my homework I done it. etc
Is that Northern England by any chance? I understand the roots of American Ebonics come from the border area between England and Scotland at the time when the Midwest had been opened up for settling and a lot of people came from there. They also apparently used to say Y'All, but it isn't a contraction of you all, it actually goes with terms like Thee and Thou, which were long in the past everywhere else, but still being spoken in those regions. Nope—my friend Google tells me it's in the Southwest. Well, maybe the same ancient terminology was (is) still being used there too?
Very much southern England. The Wiltshire accent is a West Country accent, which Americans will commonly recognise as the pirate accent.
I Was Shat sounds like it should be William Shatner's autobiography. On the shelf next to Don't Hassle the Hoff.
