It’s been my observation that sometimes reports are created at the onset of a project and perhaps a number of people are cc’d on them. The issues are resolved and that project is running smoothly, but the reports remain except now they’ve been transferred to the hapless assistant who does not know why she or he is running them.

The people who are cc’d on these reports no longer look at them because a) the project is running smoothly and there are new projects requiring more attention and b) other people are copied so surely someone else is reviewing them, right? These people leave and then the reports are inherited by a replacement who has absolutely no idea what they are for and either is too busy to ask or if he or she asks, is told not to worry about it since there are more urgent priorities.

Thus a fossil is born.

And yes, I have been the hapless new assistant who asked what this report or that report is used for and been told “I don’t know; just run it.”

On the positive side, it taught me to be a better documenter when it was my turn to create reports. Now I don’t just detail the how and when to run something; I always include the why, and if there is a potential shelf life, I include that too.

We have several “Lisa’s” at work, who handball shitty tasks to the underdog (me).