Civil Servants

[Dusty Bin]

Why do civil servants on quiz shows not reveal more about their jobs? What DO they do?

[woofgang]

mostly boring stuff

[TonyV]

If your answer was teacher, would you need a lecture, If a mechanic would you want engine diagnosis?

[bednobs]

civil servant covers tens of thousand of jobs. Most of them as woofgang points out are boring. Some jobs are told not to advertise what they do (foreign office; home office; defence) in order not to be vulnerable to blackmail

[bhg481]

As bednobs says and the same is true of passports where your occupation is visible to foreign officials.

[vulcan42]

As bednobs says, some are told not advertise. I got my first passport whilst in the RAF and my profession was described as Government official.

[Peter Pedant]

// Some jobs are told not to advertise what they do (foreign office; home office; defence) in order not to be vulnerable to blackmail//

we are talking about a quiz show and not a gay pub ?

when I was in Cairo 1980 we were asked as a matter of public safety not to refer to the American arabic language student as - - the CIA agent, but you know everyone knew. By that time I could understand the servants; chatter amongst themselves - and they knew as well

[Peter Pedant]

you mean passports dont carry occupation as - - spook ?

when I was in Peking - the guide and driver knew who I was as I shared the same surname as the then head of MI5
Yeah I am really Peter M, and they clicked immediately - not many surnames of one letter, I say.
I heard the guide say to the Driver ( yeah that way round) - "did you understand what he just said?" - in Mandarin. yeah ,my chinee was good enough to follow ....driver was a co-spook I suppose

[bednobs]

dunno what a gay pub has to do with it but i would have thought that someone on a tv quiz show has more exposure than someone down the pub. But it doesnt really matter - in some jobs you are told not to reveal to anyone where you work (either at your local gay pub or o the telly)

[Old_Geezer]

Manipulate politicians, don't they ?

[mushroom25]

a person I knew who falls into this category went to the USA and was asked by the immigration peeps what he did, and he responded "I'm not allowed to tell you". when they started kicking off he handed them a piece of paper with a phone number and said "call this number". which they did, and he was subsequently told "pass, friend".

[CrapAtCryptics]

Not forgetting tax and vat, customs and excise, prison service etc

[ichkeria]

The last thing I want on a quiz show is here people taking about themselves.
I prefer questions and and that’s it.
Sadly we seem to get more and more of it

[theprof]

Well, you can look at me as to the reason why.

I work as a Biochemistry professor predominantly, but I do mooch around government laboratories and ex-government privatised research facilities almost every week. My position at these facilities even comes with a senior army rank because of the type of facilities involved - I passed Lieutenant Colonel last year. For this advisory work, you could call me a civil servant. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that I can't and won't reveal the nature of my job in this capacity.

There's a lot of us about and this is why if you take a look at the newspaper honours lists, you'll often see entries such as "Joe Bloggs, Grade 6, MOD" amongst the lists of gongs awarded. Some of these guys keep this country safe big time, believe me and need the job anonymity. Plus, never forget that the Official Secrets Act is an omnipotent and very powerful persuader.

[THECORBYLOON]

Many Civil Servants are involved in administration of benefits but do not deal with claimants face-to-face.

They may not want folk to know what they do in order to avoid any backlash or folk asking them for benefits advice.

[theprof]

Good Point THECORBYLOON.

I'd imagine that the so-called DWP Decision Makers would do their utmost to avoid a brick being thrown through their front window during the night.

[jno]

passports don't state occupations, do they? Or is that going to change when British ones turn blue?

[Spicerack]

As little as possible.

[ludwig]

Who cares? Do you really want to know what job title someone has? They're probably told they're not allowed to say anyway because they've signed the official secrets act.

[THECORBYLOON]

The Official Secrets Act does not prevent every Civil Servant from disclosing their role and nor does each of them need to sign the Act anyway.

[curlyhair]

Not only the civil servants but probably most of the common people also hesitate to speak about their jobs in public.