BURTON’S ambulance service has apologised after staff were asked to rate how ‘cool’ Adolf Hitler was in a survey.
West Midlands Ambulance Service employees were asked to rate a list of leaders — including Gordon Brown, Fabio Capello and Adolf Hitler — according to how ‘cool’ they were.
Workers were even asked to compare their own chief executive, Ian Cumming, to the Nazi leader.
The survey was sent out to 4,000 staff and was a part of the service’s £10,000 study to identify what makes a good leader.
Several staff are believed to have contacted their trade union, Unison, after considering the question to be ‘inappropriate’.
Former ambulance worker Peter Smith, 61, from Burton, labelled the question as an ‘insult’ and ‘a waste of time’.
He said: “Although I m retired, I still speak to many people in the service and they can’t believe this latest stunt.
“The people on the ground feel it is a disgusting thing to have ‘Hitler’ and ‘coo’l in the same sentence.
“They also feel that it is such a waste of money when it could be better spent on new equipment and more staff.
“This is what happens when the people running the show, don’t know what they are doing.
He said: “At the end of the day, Hitler galvanised a nation into doing something quite unusual. Dreadful atrocities took place off the back of that.
“With hindsight, it would have been better to have used a different example.
“The survey and the question were not trying to cause any offence to anybody.” The survey also asked staff if they thought being gay, funny or black made a leader ‘cool’.
A Unison spokesman said: “Some people have said it is inappropriate and objected to it.
“Although it was not the best thing to say, it has been blown out of proportion.”
