The intern fixed it and nobody can admit that
Six weeks of meetings, undone by someone who does not have a badge yet.
The problem has a name, a recurring meeting, and its own slide template. It has survived two quarters and one consultant. Then The Intern, who is nine weeks in and still says sorry when the printer jams, mentions in passing that the numbers are being counted twice. There is a silence with a texture to it. A senior person says that is an interesting hypothesis. It is not a hypothesis, it is a fix, and it takes eleven minutes. The recurring meeting stays on the calendar for another month out of pride. In the all-hands, the win is described as a cross-functional effort. The Intern is not named. The Intern is, however, now the only person anyone actually asks.