Writing about work is normally a bad idea, partly because you never know when Google is going to direct the wrong person to the wrong blog post, but mainly because, of the things that happen in life, employment is one of the less interesting.

Today, however, my working hours have become slightly more entertaining with the revelation from my Outlook Calendar that, in ten minutes, I will be attending a briefing on ‘Project Compass’. Project Compass is in fact an ambitious yet ultimately unexciting IT project, but by giving it this World War II SOE-style codename, it has been imbued with an extra sense of mystery and allure.

It is rather unusual in my office to give our assignments such dashing codenames. Generally we name a project after whatever it is supposed to be accomplishing, like ‘filing’ or ‘editing the magazine’, but I think we might have been missing a trick. Given a secret service-style codeword, even the most banal of activities can be elevated to the level of Operation Husky or Operation Overlord.

I have decided that sending out our Friday newsletter will be ‘Project Sabretooth’, while making a tea round will be ‘Operation Tomahawk’. The more selfish act of making a single cup of tea will be ‘Operation Penknife’, while more personal matters will be discreetly referred to as ‘Project Jubilee’.

Writing blogs on my lunch hour will be ‘Project Bovril’.