I’m currently in Australia meeting customers, it was supposed to be a normal trip but it’s rapidly becoming a mopping up exercise while we clear up the mess of empty promises left behind by one of our ex-employees.

He was a regional manager and was pretty much one of our shortest employments in the history of the company. Within a couple of weeks people were having bets on whether he’d make it to the autumn holiday or whether he’d make it to Christmas, after a regional meeting where his numbers didn’t add up and his entire pitch was based on management buzzwords and hot air the betting reached fever pitch, in the end he managed to drag it out for six months before getting the old heave-ho.

Anyway, we met with a customer yesterday and he told us that he had a meeting with this guy before he left. Apparently he had grand plans and kept talking about the importance of platitude, he asked us what he’d meant, we said we had no idea but reassured him of the real position.

Now, platitude isn’t in my vocabulary so I had to look it up, here’s the dictionary definition:

Platitude (noun) – a flat, dull, or trite remark, esp. one uttered as if it were fresh or profound.

The irony……