Thursday, September 28, 2006

The saga of management reviews of reports

Question: How many feet do mice have?

Original reply: Mice have four feet.

Managment comment: Elaborate.

Revision 1: Mice have five appendages, four of which are feet.

Managment comment: No discussion of fifth apendage.

Revision 2: Mice have five appendages; four of them are feet and one is tail.

Managment comment: What? Feet without legs?

Revision 3: Mice have four legs, four feet, and one tail per mouse.

Managment comment: Confusing. Is that a total of 9 appendages?

Revision 4: Mice have four leg-foot assemblies and one tail per body.

Managment comment: Does not fully discuss the issue.

Revision 5: Each mouse comes equipped with four legs and a tail. Each leg is equipped with a foot at the end opposite to the body; the tail is not equipped with a foot.

Managment comment: Descriptive but not decisive.

Revision 6: Allotment for mice will be:
FOUR LEG_FOOT ASSEMBLIES, ONE TAIL.
Deviation from this policy is not permitted as it would constitute misappointment of scare appendage assets.

Managment comment: Too authoritative, stifles creativities.

Revision 7: Mice have four feet; each foot is attached to a small leg joined integrally with the overall mouse structural sub-system. Also attached to the mouse sub-system is a thin tail, non functional and ornamental in nature.

Managment comment: Too verbose and scientific. Answer the question.

Final Revision: Mice have four feet.

Managment comment: Approved.

4 comments:

me said...

if only i had a quid for every time i have heard something along these lines!

katy said...

bloody management is what i say!

/77!cH3//3 said...

wat a familiar scenario! haha

happens all the time. =/

Kim Ayres said...

I guess we've all been there