DOPE, FATSO and SCUM are some of the real job title acronyms Victorians have been given

WOULD you apply for a job title advertised as FATSO, DOPE or SCUM? Those are some of the hilarious job title acronyms Victorians have copped.

Would you apply for a job title if its acronym was “FATSO”? Picture: Thinkstock

WOULD you apply for a job title advertised as DOPE, FATSO or SCUM?

Those are among the unfortunate but hilarious job titles our readers have shared with us.

Back when Barry McArthur, from Wangaratta, was teaching, his head honcho apparently gloried in the title of “director of primary education”.

“According to those who knew him, he was a bit of one,” Barry notes.

And David of Noble Park tells us a major insurance company in Victoria once had a “special claims unit manager”.

“After about three months it was changed to ‘manager, special claims unit’,” he says.

Other readers have told us about job titles shortened to FATSO — facilities access technical support officer, and the far more appealing BOS — branch operation supervisor.

Our tales of acronyms reminded Sunbury’s Alan Edwards of when he worked at Ford’s vehicle assembly plant in Broadmeadows for nearly 40 years.

“In those days acronyms were rife there such as BSPMS (pronounced be-s-pee-ms) for ‘body side protection mouldings’ and HMSL (him-sell) for ‘high mounted stop light’ and so on,” Alan recalls.

“If any newcomers sat at a meeting they had no idea what was being spoken about.

“It got so bad there was talk of forming a committee whose job was to get rid of some of the acronyms but the idea was dropped — because the only name they could really give it was the Ford Acronym Reduction Team.”

Do you know of a funny job acronym? Let us know. Email: [e-mail]

MORE IN BLACK & WHITE:

THEY HAD ONE JOB — TROLLEY BAY’S MAJOR DESIGN FLAW

INSURANCE COMPANY ASKS FOR WIDOW’S “LATE” HUSBAND

LETTER POSTED TO “HIPPO LADY, BLACKBURN” REACHES DESTINATION

Check out In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories from our readers.