Monthly Report

The following story is based on a true life encounter.

I have a confession to make today....

How could this have happened to me? My mind was blank as I stared at my 19” monitor at my cubicle. My boss sent a reminder yesterday and today as well to remind us that today was the last day for Nov’07 monthly report submission. Last month we had the same reminder as well, but my colleagues and I daringly ignored the reminder. Needless to say, I felt guilty for the rest of the month. Hence, today I’m determined to hand in my report on time. But to my dismay, no matter how hard I tried, I just don’t know what to write. There were too many things that happened in the past month and I just don’t know where to start! The clock continues ticking. Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was already 4.30pm. One hour to go till deadline.

How did I end up in this situation? The story actually starts once upon a time when I first started working. I used to have no difficulty writing monthly reports back then. All changed when I moved to a new role and a new boss. In that group the system was to submit all our monthly reports to Mr. Consolidator, and he in turn will consolidate the reports for the boss. However, Mr. Consolidator was a lazy man and our monthly reports never got to our boss’s hands. Soon after that all of us stopped the habit of writing reports and our boss stopped asking for it as well. So Mr. Consolidator was kind of our savior as he saved us time by being the roadblock for the information path to our dear boss and we could all put the blame on him. This went on for about a year and a half. All of us counted our blessings to exist in this blissful moment.

One unlucky day, the situation changed when our company went through some recent restructuring. Mr Consolidator was moved to report under another boss. The feeling was like a sky full of black clouds looming in on our heavenly fantasy. My boss started to ask us to submit monthly reports directly to her not long after that. This is how I end up sitting on my ergo chair in my cubicle staring at the blank screen ahead and pondering if I should write or not write my monthly report.

I glanced at my watch for the second time. Its 4.45pm already. Heck, I’ve wasted another 15 minutes doing nothing. Without further delay I boost my determination with a cup of Nescafe regular 3 in 1 coffee and started on my report. Firstly I browsed through all my mails for the past 4 weeks and jot down all the key items that I would like to include in my report. Next I broke down the list into 3 major categories – General, Highlights and Lowlights. Then, I wrote short descriptions for each of the items. For those items that took to much hassle to explain, I guiltily deleted them from the list. After much sweat and effort, I finally finished the report and hit the send button at 5.30pm sharp! Hooray! Mission accomplished.

I have to admit, although I managed to hand in the report on time; I’m not too satisfied about the report. It was by far the worst report I ever wrote in my entire life. I need to polish my writing skills and invest more time on next month’s report.