At my job, a daily backlog is generated for the office to use. It contains a list of all the jobs we have on order, and includes quantities and ship dates. Customer Service uses it to keep track of who ordered what when and when it ships; Production uses it to determine and regulate its building schedule; Purchasing uses it to determine how much stock is allocated. It's vital information to the business.

Around September, it became my responsibility to generate the backlog and e-mail it to everyone; roughly two-thirds of the office. It was rather monotonous, and as is usually the case when I'm stuck doing something monotonous, I look for ways to keep myself amused. I found my amusement when, one day, rather than put the generic "latest backlog" or "Backlog for 10/14/03" in the subject header, I wrote "I'm a Backlog, you're a Backlog", and in the e-mail wrote "Wouldn't you like to be a backlog, too?"

Needless to say, this act cemented my reputation in the office for being a straight-shooting, no-nonsense sorta guy.

And for the past month, I've kept at it. Each day, I'd write some goofball subject heading, taking some well known phrase or song-lyric and subsituting one of the words for "backlog". It wasn't always easy, especially given the fact that I tried to always make it something everyone would get--not easy when you've got a cross-generational office with people less knowledgeable about pop culture than others. But by and large, people liked it. Even the General Manager, the head of our company, had no problem with it.

Until today. Because at the end of the day, Matt, the General Manager, cc'd me on an e-mail discussion he was having with one of the Emerson mucka-mucks who oversee our company. It seems he'd like to start recieveing the backlog every day for his own purposes. Which of course means the uttery-unprofessional taglines I've been writing have to go.

I'm pissed, as it certainly made work a bit more enjoyable for me, but I really can't complain. Matt had been extremely gracious to let me keep doing it when I really shouldn't have. And, let's face it, how many days can you keep at something like this before the ideas start to run out?

Still, a shame it has to end. Christmas is right around the corner and I had a TON of ideas ready for that.