original publish date: 11th April, 2010
decades on …
Technically, ‘outstanding’ meant ‘excellent’ for centuries before it also came to mean ‘unresolved’, so etymologically, this is really on the Project Manager.
And what sort of psychopath has purple walls?!?
transcript
FTE #1 (thinking): Excellent! It’s performance feedback time. This will teach that lazy so-and-so to actually work on my project next time!
FTE #1: Here’s your bonus, well done! Your project manager said all your tasks were outstanding.
FTE #2: Thanks, it was nothing, really.
Caption: The English language. Fostering ambiguity since the 5th century.