EXCLUSIVE: Drugs, defecation, and graffiti at HMRC’s Manchester headquarters
UK government staff working for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have been warned about repeated acts of vandalism at its Manchester HQ, including defecating on toilet floors and using faeces to “write unpleasant messages”.
Trinity Bridge House, Robert Wade / Flikr / CC by 2.0
A member of the facilities management team at HMRC – which governs the collection of tax and payment of state support – wrote to staff about repeated bad behaviour at the department’s Trinity Bridge House HQ in an email seen by FinTech Futures.
“Last week there was another deliberate act of vandalism in the ground floor toilets resulting in the flooding of the facilities and the corridor,” the note states, adding that there has been an increase in reported incidents.
Staff were reported to have “deliberately blocked toilet bowls with paper towels”, smeared “bodily fluids” on doors, walls and toilet seats, used faeces to “write unpleasant messages”, defecated on toilet floors, and taken illegal drugs.
More than one member of HMRC staff is involved in the vandalism, according to the email. It adds that anyone identified as carrying out deliberate acts of vandalism will be dealt with “severely”.
Esther Wallington, chief people officer at HMRC, told FinTech Futures: “These reprehensible actions, committed by a few individuals, have no place in our organisation and absolutely do not reflect the professionalism and values of the overwhelming majority of our Manchester colleagues.
“We are working with police to investigate these acts of vandalism and identify those responsible.”
Related: FCA exposed for ‘shameful’ behaviour at its London HQ
The email bears striking resemblance to one issued by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief operating officer Georgina Philippou to staff to the watchdogs’s new Stratford HQ.
Philippou called out employees for defecating on the toilet floors and verbally abusing catering and security staff.
HMRC completed the letting of a new 157,000sq foot Manchester location in March 2018.
The new building, less than a mile away from Trinity Bridge House, will be centred in the New Bailey development near Salford Central station. Members of staff will begin moving to the seven-storey complex from Spring 2022 onwards.
In 2015 HMRC announced its aim to bring employees together into 13 “large, modern offices”, making it “easier to collaborate and work flexibly”.
The department’s Locations Programme is the largest office transformation programme in the UK and involves the development of more than 429,000sq metres of new office space. It plans to save around £300 million up to 2025 through the programme.
This sort of behaviour does not surprise me. We live next door to 2 hmrc workers and they spend more time at home allegedly ‘working’ than actually at work which is local…. Maidstone. Complete waste of public money… How can they possibility be working to the best of their ability when never in. Does make us very angry!!!!! Plus they work in tax fraud and evasion… Its laughable!!!!
How stupid can you be?
It’s called technology, love.
It’s actually cheaper for taxpayers to have people at home.
Don’t be stupid, it’s called eyesight love.
If they were working from home using your condescendingly much-ballyhooed technology then they wouldn’t be so readily seen by their neighbours now would they?
Or do you think the neighbours only see them on their chosen lunch-style hour’s break but they’re just too stupid to have thought of that?
What worries me most is that you so readily assumed the poster hadn’t thought of that and/or posted without knowing the full facts.
They said something you didn’t like so you’re immediate reaction was to think the worst of them. To imbue them with stupidity so deep that they’d miss something as obvious as the ‘home office’, says more about you than it does them.
It appears to us that you have a terribly low opinion of others, and that you feed directly off that terribly low opinion of others to nourish an awfully high opinion of yourself.
I’m sure most readers took for granted, as I did, that the poster knows for certain that their neighbours don’t work from home, because otherwise, they wouldn’t have written that post.
What you must say to yourself is; ‘I castigated that poster on the premise that no-one should write such a post without knowing the full facts, even though I wrote the actual Reply doing so, without myself knowing the full facts. But, why didn’t I naturally assume that they knew the full facts? Why did I assume they were so stupid that they hadn’t thought of something ‘so last century’ as the home office, aka working from home?
Give people credit “love”; maybe starting with yourself because that awfully high opinion you so openly, nay brazenly wear is nothing more than the classic mask of self-doubt & low self-esteem …… Oops, nearly forgot, ‘love’!
Maybe get a job yourself you lazy bum rather than worrying about how your neighbours spend their time. Maybe they are working from home monitoring you to see if the disability your claiming isn’t so you can sit on your arse all day and do nothing . Haha
The new regional centres will more or less force staff to work from home 2 or 3 days per week as there will not be enough desk space for all staff.
This is why all HMRC staff are provided with portable devices (laptops) so that they can work remotely.
All the evidence from independent research shows that allowing staff to work from home is not only better for staff health and moral, but also that staff are more productive.
The Civil Service is actually well behind the curve on this issue. Many large office based employers now encourage (or even force) staff to work from home.
With the simple technology available to everyone it’s easy to allow staff to work from home and enable them to not only have access to every system but to collaborate and chat face to face in real time.
Just because someone is at home does not mean they are not working.
Working at home also allows staff the flexibility of completing their day over a longer period and not be restricted to 9-5.
This improves productivity again by allowing people to work during hours that they are most productive, which may be later on in the day/Evening/Night.
It also means that they can attend appointments etc without it affecting hours worked/lost through travel to/from work.
Further, if these 2 HMRC staff do work in the department dealing with fraud and evasion then it’s entirely possible that they are not just working from home or working remotely, but are actually designated Home Workers, something that particular department has many of given the need for them to be mobile at short notice.
There is a big difference between working from home and simply skiving…. Where two Hmrc employees have a reputation in local area for asking for cash payment jobs to be done!!! Tax fraud…. Its laughable!!! Oh I am fully aware about protocol for working at home but HMRC clearly allow employees far too much freedom. Wasting our taxpayers money.
I would hope that if you suspect tax fraud, you have reported this to HMRC rather than just plastering it on the internet?
Nothing newsworthy about this at all. Happens in lots of places this article mentioned two. There are a lot of scummy scruffy sods on this planet. The bigger the site/workforce the more chance you have of getting idiots like this among them. Happens in many food outlets and factories too. Bet we eat all kinds of stuff that disgusting people like this drop in there. Some people are filthy scummy vindictive A-holes. Whats news about that? Non-story