Is it a struggle going back to work today?

Is today your first day back after the holidays? Perhaps you were not looking forward to it - but then some people had a worse time at work in 2008. From the Globe and Mail:

Layoffs and hiring freezes may be the order of the day as economic woes clobber the workplace. But why waste your time worrying about it? Just hold your head up high, whistle a little tune and have a snigger at those with bigger career headaches than you. Here are some of 2008's zaniest examples of wonkiness in the workplace:

Firing offences

A senior London police officer was fired for having sex at the Gatwick Airport railway station while on duty and in uniform. He said he left his earpiece in so he could be contacted in an emergency.

A museum curator in China was dismissed for gluing a 2,000-year-old turtle dove carving back together instead of reporting the damage.

A South Korean financial researcher lost his job for telling a TV talk show that people make unwise investments because they are too greedy.

A Florida police officer was let go for routinely butting in line at a Starbucks, demanding free coffee and threatening slow emergency response times if employees refused.

A Chinese official was sacked from his Communist Party post for staging a lavish funeral for his mother. Local residents complained that he erected a stage, hired a band and hosted a banquet with more than 100 tables.

A pilot for Turkey's AnadoluJet was terminated for allowing a 15-year-old to sit in his seat during a flight while he went to the bathroom.

Swedish clergyman Gunnar Svensson was asked to resign after crashing his church's computer system with a virus downloaded as he surfed a hardcore porn website.

Read the full article here.