The Corporate Trickle Down

Remember when you were in grade school and you’d play that telephone game? You know, the one where the class sat in a circle and one person whispered a sentence to the person sitting next to him. By the time the message reached the end of the circle it had been distorted beyond recognition.
Example:
Beginning of Circle: The elephant blew water from its trunk.
End of Circle: My best friend’s name is Tiffany.

The place I work is fun! We play Telephone everyday! Our executives tell their assistants messages they want me to know. Then the assistant tells my big boss, who then tells my little boss while they’re in the restroom washing their hands, who then writes an even more abbreviated message in the form of an e-mail. Ten sentences have been turned into one that’s barely decipherable. And the end result is always an assignment.

Why oh why cant important people convey information directly to peons like myself? In the age of e-mail, voicemail and text messaging, can’t we do a little bit better? We’re all adults, must we rely on a grade school method of communication?