Portuguese businessman Orico Silva chose the latter route when his in-court financial dispute ended in bloodshed. Silva, who owns a 50-acre farm in the town of Figueira da Foz, was sued by a title company for holding onto a cash deposit on a land deal that had fallen through.

When Silva refused to pay off his $217,000 debt, a judge declared that part of his farm needed to be sold. That’s when Silva removed a butcher’s knife from his briefcase and cut off one of his fingers.

“My intention was to tear up all the case papers and splatter them with blood so I could prevent the expropriation order for my land,” Silva was quoted as saying. After shocking the judge and lawyers, he proceeded to cut his severed finger into three pieces to further protest the sale.

“I didn’t feel anything, I could even have cut off all my fingers,” said Silva. “It was an act of despair.”

Everyone’s got their verbal pet peeves, but odds are good you and your co-workers have more in common than you think when it comes to phrases that should never be spoken in the office.

After performing extensive research, scholars at Oxford University and author Jeremy Butterfield have devised a list of the ten most irritating phrases uttered by humans.

This top ten list appears in Butterfield’s latest book, “Damp Squid,” which was comprised from books, papers, magazines, journals, broadcast media and other sources:

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It’s a nightmare
8. Shouldn’t of
9. 24/7
10. It’s not rocket science

In addition to these expressions, Butterfield also came up with a runners-up list of phrases. Although it’s populated by office lingo like “think-tank” and “synergy,” the words “literally” and “ironically” nabbed honorable mention for being used incorrectly, or out of context the most often.

Does one particular word or phrase automatically send you or your co-workers off the deep end? Share your own pet peeves with others below.

In an audit by the Justice Department, it was discovered that U.S. taxpayers were billed an average of $45,000  in overtime and extra pay for each FBI agent posted to Iraq between 2003 and 2007.

Dealing with sniper fire and mortar blast might make those amounts seem seriously low-balled, but the Justice Department’s audit found over $7.8 million of those wages were improperly billed.

Several agents noted they’d spent time during the week washing clothes — and they included those hours in their overtime requests. When asked whether agents should be paid for such activities, one agent said, “When you’re in that environment, anything you do to survive is work for the FBI.”

Other agents claimed they should be paid for important “liaison” meetings — which turned out to be regular Saturday night cocktail parties. In another case, dozens of agents claimed they were preparing evidence for Saddam Hussein’s court trial when they were taking part in a massive poker tournament.

The report also noted some misused overtime and extra pay allowances in Afghanistan and with agents in the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals Service, but those cases were far less severe.

A clerical error on a federal grant application has cost the city of Denver nearly $2 million in funds that would have financed the “Lead Safe Denver” program for another year. Officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) say they never looked at Denver’s grant application because a city staffer used an incorrect DUNS number (a nine-digit number used to track where federal grant money is sent) on the paperwork.

Lead Safe Denver, a 9-year-old program that tests low-income children for lead exposure and offers assistance and info on lead poisoning to needy families, nearly collapsed from the financial loss. The city had identified $360,000 shifted from other programs that will be used to keep the program alive for another year. At that time, the city can apply for another federal grant.

HUD is quick to point out there was no guarantee Denver would have received the funds, but it had received similar grants for the three previous years before the clerical error incident.

Officials say the mistake was made by a “pretty well-seasoned” city employee, but that staff shifts have been made since to prevent similar errors from happening again in the grant application process.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that the USPS didn’t violate the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) after terminating Antoinette Pirant, a former worker.

To be eligible for those benefits, an employee must have been employed by a company for at least 12 months and must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12-month period before making the request. After Pirant left for FMLA leave, USPS looked through their payroll records and discovered she didn’t meet the criteria.

Pirant had only logged in 1248.8 hours in the 12 months preceding her absence. As a result, USPS was forced to terminate her.

Pirant did not challenge the accuracy of USPS’ payroll records — instead, she claimed she was wrongly suspended for two hours at the end of one of her shifts, and those missed hours would have been enough to put her over the 1,250-hour threshold.

But a court ruled in favor of USPS, noting that Pirant could have challenged her suspension when it was placed into effect to have her lost hours restored. Because she didn’t file a grievance until long after the deadline had passed, there was no way for her to gain the lost hours — or her job back.

Cite: Pirant v. U.S. Postal Svc., 7th CA, No. 542-F3D-202

In a bid to improve the number of taxpayers who choose to file their state tax returns online, Maryland’s Comptroller has turned to tickling funny bones as a manner of persuasion. In a spoof of Budweiser’s “Real Men of Genius” advertising campaign, the state office has posted it’s “Real Taxpayers of Genius” on YouTube.

“Today, we salute you, Mr. Frustrated Taxpayer,” begins the announcer. He’s then backed up by singers who repeat his falsetto phrases announcing an alternative to paper-based confusion — individuals can file their taxes electronically.

At the video’s end, Comptroller Peter Franchot reminds viewers online filing is faster and easier than mailing a return — not to mention far less expensive for the state. The state spends $1.98 processing each paper return, compared to a paltry $0.38 for those filed online.

Yakima Washington (yes, like the city) claimed that her former boss asked her to run personal errands on several occasions during her employment.

Once Washington let Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers know she intended to file a formal complaint against her, the president responded by swiftly terminating her assistant.

The city council’s Internal Operations Committee originally approved an offer to pay Washington $90,000 through its claims process, but the city soon reneged on the deal. Soon after, Washington sued for breach of contract, and a new proposal was approved by a seven-to-one vote to pay Washington a $90,000 settlement.

There are right and wrong questions to ask when applying for a job. The right ones show how ready people are to tackle a job head-on. The wrong ones put them out of an interview so fast their heads spin.

Most potential hires spend so much time preparing and honing their answers for any question you might ask them that they don’t put any thought into what they’d like to ask your company.

According to Yahoo! HotJobs, a lack of preparedness for that part of the interview usually leads to someone asking one of these unsuitable interview questions:

1. “Are you going to perform a background check?” — Whether an applicant has credit issues or is worried about how solid their previous job references are, asking this question on a first interview usually makes it look like they have something to hide.
2. “How soon can I move to another position?” — Almost all employers want to keep new hires in their position for at least a year before moving them around, so a bait-and-switch isn’t likely to pan out anytime soon.
3. “Is [my medical condition] covered by your insurance plan?” — This one’s doubly wrong. Not only is it sharing private medical information with a complete stranger, but not all interviewers — especially if they’re not exclusively HR — will know what’s covered under the company’s health plan on a condition-by-condition basis.
4. “Can you tell me about the public transportation around the office?” — If you’ve got access to the Internet or a telephone, you can figure out the bus route to the office.
5. “When will I be eligible for a raise?” — Now more than ever, salary’s a difficult topic to handle. A better idea is to wait until the second interview and ask if a company holds one-year performance and salary reviews.
6. “Can I wait for [three or more] weeks before I start?” — Most employers expect a person to give two weeks’ notice. When an applicant asks for extra time off without a good reason, it begs the question: “How serious is the candidate about working here?”
7. “Do you have smoking breaks?” — If needing to run out and smoke impedes on your ability to work — or at least get through an interview — it’s time to drop the habit.

Are there any questions you absolutely want a Finance applicant to ask? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

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The “Careereoki” contest, sponsored by Workforce Central Florida and the Orange County Board, is going to give one lucky singer a career training scholarship, personal and resume makeovers, and a $100 gas card.

Dreamed up by the Orlando-area establishments, the contest requires people to videotape themselves singing about their dream career, karaoke-style. Most of the entrants are from Central Florida, because the grand prize includes tuition for a certificate program at Orange County Technical School.

Judges have the competition pared down to the final five, including takes on Robert Palmer’s “Bad Case of Loving You” and “Summer Nights” from the musical Grease.

The final winner will be decided by looking at three categories. Originality earns up to 50% of a contestant’s total score, while creativity and overall humor are worth 25% each.