It’s the little things that were a pointer to Fred the Shred’s failings

NEVER mind dress-down Fridays.

What every office really needs is a Give Out Monday; a regular gathering over coffee, where everybody voices their pet hates. It happens all the time anyway, so why not make it like a bank holiday, only for bitching. Last week, for example, one of our people did a spectacular rant about those who leave out the sugar overnight, uncovered. You never knew what would get at it. (Cue theatrical shudder.) This time of year, it would attract wasps. But any time of the year, it could lure ants. (Cue even more theatrical shudders.)

We all nodded solemnly and made a resolution never to leave out the sugar again. None of us had ever thought of it as a personal bad habit which could drive someone else out of their mind, but it clearly was and could. Someone else followed up by saying they hated people who brought overcoats or anoraks or jackets into the office and put them on the back of their chairs. It was so slovenly and lazy and disrespectful and disgusting.