JAPANESE GOVERNMENT WORKER PUNISHED FOR LEAVING 3 MINUTES EARLY FOR LUNCH

A Japanese civil servant was punished for slipping away from his desk a few minutes early for his lunch break. The 64-year-old, an employee of the waterworks bureau in the western city of Kobe, was fined and reprimanded after he was found to have left his desk just three minutes before the start of his designated lunch break on 26 occasions over a seven-month period. Management calculated how much time he had spent away from his desk and docked him half a day’s pay. Senior officials at the bureau then called a televised news conference, where they described the man’s conduct as “deeply regrettable” and bowed in apology. A spokesman for the bureau said: “The lunch break is from noon to 1pm. He left his desk before the break.” The worker violated a public service law requiring officials to “concentrate on their jobs”, according to the bureau.
* Maybe he wanted to beat the “Exactly At Noon” Rush.
* When there’s only one microwave in the lunchroom, you’ve got to grab every advantage you can.
* It sounds harsh, but in the old days, they would have taken a finger.
* Then his bosses found out about his frequent poop breaks, and scheduled another news conference.
* What do they do to people who build nuclear powerplants in earthquake zones?