Funny what we do to language

So I’m sitting in my hotel here in Nottingham getting ready for breakfast and I look at the ‘In Room Dining Menu’. At the foot it announces, ‘Our Aim!’

Which is?

To deliver a consistant (sic) and pleasureable (sic) experience for guests who want to enjoy home cooked food within the comfort of their bedroom and have it delivered in good time to the correct temperature and tasting great.

Spelling and English apart, I do have to ask… aren’t there times when this modern penchant for mission statement goes a little too far?

Comments

[James Gracie]

When I had a real job, my last post was as a press officer in local government. Before I took the king's shilling and becoming a full time writer, the local authority spent a seven-figure sum over two years preparing a document that had mission statements for every department, including mine. It also spent a six figure sum on a new logo. Soon after the money had been spent, the local authority was wound up, to be replaced by a unitary authority. I was long gone by then, but the whole rigmarole started again. New mission statements, new logo.....

[David]

Intriguing. I wonder what happens to organisations without mission statements? Do they all go to hell in a handcart?

[Jonathan Hayes]

Oh, c'mon, David! TELL me you didn't find that note pleasureable!

[David]

It was a lot more pleasurable than the hotel breakfast I can tell you! The mission statement definitely failed over what was supposed to pass as a fried egg.