A friend worked for the BBC. He was given a new office. Midway through his first day, a gang of workmen turned up and carefully cut two feet off all sides of the wall-to -wall carpet. When he asked why, he was told that he was one grade below the rank that was entitled to fitted carpet. His grade was only entitled to a rug. When he questioned the wisdom of this, he got the reply "Oh, and you're not entitled to a standard lamp either", and the men took that away too.