Consultant’s Report

A company hired a management consultant to appraise the personnel efficiency reports made out by their managers and supervisors. The consultant expected the reports to be dull going, but found to his surprise that they contained a good deal of intentional—and unintentional—humor. Here are a few examples…

• This foreman has talents but has kept them well hidden.
• Can express a sentence in two paragraphs any time.
• A quiet, reticent manager. Industrious, tenacious, careful, and neat. I do not wish to have this woman as a member of my department under any circumstances.
• In any change in policy or procedure, he can be relied upon to produce the improbable, hypothetical situation in which the new policy cannot work.
• Needs careful watching since he borders on the brilliant.
• Open to suggestions but never follows them.
• Is keenly analytical, and his highly developed mentality could best be utilized in research and development. He lacks common sense.
• Never makes the same mistake twice but it seems to me he had made them all once.

Bits & Pieces, November 12, 1992, pp. 23-24