As civil servants book their holidays for the upcoming election, several government departments have been investing in ways to make life less stressful for the famously hard-working, clock-off-at-four profession. Signs have popped up urging people to not use exclusionary phrases like “that’s crazy”, gender-neutral toilet schemes are becoming very popular, and even ‘safe spaces’ are appearing.

In the Department for International Trade, civil servants can relax in the ‘Tranquility room’ where personal calls and meetings are banned. Negotiating those new trade deals can get very stressful…

In the Treasury, signs guide civil servants on how to avoid offence, with comical posters even suggesting replacing words like ‘crazy’ and ‘schizophrenic’ with ‘absurd’ and ‘erratic’. Four words that aptly describe their language-policing scheme…