Phillip Inman: Work in progress

Phillip Inman: Work in progress

Maybe it's the stress of living in the capital that drives workers to send foul-mouthed emails, but whatever the reason, they have won the accolade as the most likely to swear, criticise colleagues and delete emails they don't want others to see.

A survey of 2,000 people by YouGov for email security company Clearswift, found Londoners were the worst offenders. Almost a third admit to using foul language compared with less than a fifth from the North of England.

They're more inclined to use email for backstabbing, too - 19% have criticised someone else.

· Bank bosses sparked fury this week after it emerged that two workers had vegetables placed on their desks to "motivate" them. One teenage teller in a Glasgow branch of Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBoS) came to work to discover a cabbage on the desk, while another in the Paisley branch was confronted by a cauliflower.

It is understood the Glasgow worker was told that she could only pass the vegetable on when she got someone to open an account.

Banking union Amicus, led by Derek Simpson, said the tactic was "unacceptable".

Union representatives want a company-wide investigation into allegations that the bullying and intimidation of sales staff is rife.

HBOS, which has 67,000 staff in the UK, apologised. "We hold our hands up to these mistakes and are very sorry," he said. "The managers concerned clearly.....continued below

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made a very poor judgment without thinking that people might feel bad about it."

· School leavers are a dismal failure in the workplace, according to thousands of smaller employers. More than half of employers believe the standard of their literacy, numeracy and oral skills is "poor" or "very poor". Len Collinson, national chairman of the Forum of Private Business, which carried out the survey, said: "It amounts to a condemnation of Britain's education system."

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