Licensed to quack

My turn to attend an interview with the council doctor. Human Resources are perturbed by the poor sickness record in the Library Service so anybody having more than three days' sick within a financial year is now required to see the doc. I had a day off with the winter lurgi a few weeks ago and so I must play. As a cynical exercise in box-ticking it takes some beating.

"I see you were off with stress a few years ago."

"This is true."

"Of course, each person deals with stress in a different way."

"And of course, each organisation generates unnecessary stresses in different ways."

"Quite so, quite so. Do you consider that you are fit for work at present?"

"Yes."

"So do I. Thank you for coming."

By my reckoning we'll have a dozen or more people having very similar conversations over the next week or so. Picking individuals off one by one is easier than dealing with the systemic failings of the organisation.