Amber, yellow and green

As a Program Manager (or a Project or Portfolio Manager), the three most important colors in your work are amber (or red), yellow and green. These colors are used to measure actual performance against target for which amber represents not meeting target, yellow means slightly off from the target while green means you're safe or within target.

This is a true story which just happened yesterday to one of my friends, a Program Manager, in my workplace.

She was asked by the Head of Program Management (who is an asshole) to report department spendings for January against budget. So, she duly prepared the report and obviously, as a Program Manager, she colored the cell (the report is in Excel) in accordance to the variance between actual spending against the budget. Amber being overspent, yellow being slightly over the budget and green for within the budget.

She sent the report via email to the Head of Program Management (who is an asshole).

To her surprise, the Head of Program Management (who is an asshole) replied the email within minutes. She thought that was efficient! And to her surprise also, the first line of the reply from the Head of Program Manager (who is an asshole) was...

"Hi F*za, there are too many colors in the report."

Can you believe that comes from the Head of Program Management?!! Owh... he's not just a Head of Program Management, he is an asshole! And you can figure out why I left Program Management and transfer to other department.