Misbehaving Chief

First published: 21^st July 2011

This webpage on the Government's IT strategy also includes recent related events. One of these reported that the Deputy of the department had temporarily taken over from the Chief (Government Chief Information Officer, GCIO), who had resigned, with the headline:

Mr Stephen Mak acted up as GCIO

Unfortunately, "to act up" is a phrase meaning, "to misbehave". For example, a tired teacher might tell her colleagues, "The kids were acting up today" (Note: kids here is slang for children, though the formal meaning is baby goat). It can also be used to describe a machine not working properly, such as, "My car is acting up again".

The headline writer was probably trying to find a short way to convey that Mr Mak would be acting as (taking on the responsibilities of) his superior. I'm sure that Mr Mak is polite and well-behaved in his new position. An alternative is:

Mr Stephen Mak becomes Acting GCIO