It was an email, fercrissake. I was just proactively drilling down so I could add value to the poor woman's best practices in order that—yes, going forward—she can add value to her core competencies in a goal-oriented, results-driven synergistic process.

granularly,

For most of my years at the old Flatline, Comatose, Torpor & Drowse prior to the merger it wasn't so bad, but then came 1995 when, god help us, the old board bought an off-the-shelf package from some bandits who styled themselves "management consultants," and o my word, we were off to the races: "process improvement teams" up the wazoo. To their credit, most of the old-timers (I was a junior old-timer by then) treated this nonsense with the contempt it deserved, or at most paid it lip service merely. A few, and a savvy fraction of the younger cohort, recognized a gravy train when they saw one, and rode it to glory. We're still afflicted with many of them in senior slots today, most of whom aren't worth the pillows it'd take to smother 'em.

It got much worse after the merger (an unholy union that has resulted, as has become clear in retrospect, in the junior partner poisoning and then devouring the larger). Seventeen months and change. I'm betting the UC Davis chancellor will retire before I do, though.

cordially,