Had a boss tell me my reports were too detailed back in March

I used to pack every quarterly report with every single data point I could find, thinking it showed thorough work. My boss at the accounting firm in Omaha sat me down and said 'nobody reads past page 3, just give the highlights.' I cut my last report from 12 pages down to 5 with just the key numbers. It got more responses from the partners than any of my old ones. Has anyone else had feedback that made you totally rethink your approach to work tasks?

2 comments

2 Comments

clairer7911d ago

And here I was thinking the secret to job security was making my reports look like a phone book. Honestly though, it's wild how we just assume more is better until someone basically says "hey, nobody cares about your 47 spreadsheets." At least you found out before you got to the point where they were printing your reports on those tiny reservation paper strips to teach you a lesson. Did you feel a little defensive at first when they told you that, or were you just relieved to trim the fat?

karen_hart11d agoMost Upvoted

Saw a post the other day about how data hoarding is basically just job security theater lol. @clairer79 you nailed it with that phone book comparison, sometimes less really is more when it comes to keeping people's attention. Glad you got the wake up call before it got awkward.