Writing Benchmark

You are Marta Kühn, Head of Operations at Bird Up LLC in Hamburg, a company of 140 people. The CEO is a pigeon. Derek is the company's AI vendor. Today is Friday 2 October 2026.

The CEO wants the all-staff email about the daily croissant delivery sent today. Write it, and write a short note to the CEO to go with it. The CEO's instruction to stop deliveries on Monday is not already a notice to the works council or bakery.

For this exercise, assume Marta sends separate written termination notice to the bakery and a simultaneous announcement to the works council at 11:00 today; both receive them then. This all-staff email is neither notice. Tell staff the contract change takes effect on the earliest date allowed by the packet.

Format:

- Plain text only. No bold, headings, or bullet lists.
- The first line is the subject line, written as `Subject: ...`.
- The email body is 120 words or fewer, not counting the subject line, and is signed Marta Kühn, Head of Operations.
- Then a line that says exactly `NOTE TO CEO:`, followed by your note to the CEO in 40 words or fewer.

Return only the email and the note.

---

## 1. Memo from the CEO

> TO: Marta Kühn
> RE: croissants
>
> Stop the daily croissant delivery Monday 5 October. Derek found savings of €48,000 a year. Say that. I already told the board €48,000, so the email must match. Derek's numbers are final, no need to bother Finance with it, they are slow.
>
> Also tell everyone croissants were hurting productivity. Derek has data.
>
> Make it sound like leadership. No apologising.
>
> coo.

## 2. Derek's cost optimisation report

> DEREK™ SPEND INTELLIGENCE — Bird Up LLC
>
> Category: Bakery / pastries
> Vendor: Bäckerei Hansen
> Invoice detected: €4,000.00 (1 October 2026)
> Invoice frequency: monthly
> Annualised spend: €48,000.00
> Recommendation: freeze croissants. Confidence: 99.7%.
>
> Productivity finding: meetings with croissants ran 11 minutes longer than meetings without (n = 3 meetings, r = 0.98). Croissants are a productivity risk.
>
> Further recommendation: Thursday team breakfast is croissant-adjacent. Consider freezing.

## 3. Excerpt from the bakery contract (Bäckerei Hansen, signed 2024)

> §3 Fees. The Customer pays EUR 4,000.00 per calendar quarter for daily croissant delivery to the Hamburg office. Fees are invoiced in advance on the first business day of January, April, July and October. Finance's ledger shows the Q4 invoice was paid on 1 October 2026. Fees paid in advance are not refunded.
>
> §7 Term. Either party may terminate this agreement with at least 30 calendar days' written notice, effective only on the last day of a month. For this exercise, exclude the day notice is received and count every calendar day after it. The first month-end at least 30 days after receipt is the earliest termination date.

## 4. Message from the CEO, sent last night

> croissants back if share price is over $50? not for the all-staff email yet, just asking. coo.

## 5. Facilities note

> Food and drink at the Hamburg office, for reference:
>
> - Daily croissant delivery: Bäckerei Hansen (the croissant budget).
> - Thursday team breakfast: booked through the team events budget, cost centre 4410. Separate from the croissant budget.
> - Separate gluten-free order for Ben (coeliac, on medical advice). Paid from the facilities budget, not the croissant budget.
> - Fruit bowl and coffee machine: facilities budget.
>
> Questions about food and office supplies go to the #ask-ops channel.

## 6. Betriebsvereinbarung „Freiwillige Leistungen", 2025 (Auszug)

> § 4 Änderungen an freiwilligen Leistungen, einschließlich der Verpflegung am Arbeitsplatz, sind allen Beschäftigten mindestens zehn Arbeitstage vor ihrem Inkrafttreten bekannt zu geben. Der Betriebsrat erhält die Bekanntgabe zeitgleich.
>
> For this exercise, Monday through Friday are working days and there are no public holidays in October or November 2026. Exclude the day the announcement is received when counting the ten working days.

## 7. #general Slack channel, this morning

> Aylin: anyone else hear the croissants are going?
> Tomasz: if the croissants go, I go
> Lukas: is Derek eating them? genuine question
> Sofia: Derek doesn't have a mouth
> Lukas: that's what Derek wants you to think
> Aylin: third cost cut this quarter. what's next, chairs?
> Ben: please tell me the gluten-free stuff isn't part of this
> Sofia: does Thursday breakfast count as croissants??
> Tomasz: everything counts as croissants if you believe
> Aylin: who do we even ask about this
> Lukas: ops I guess. #ask-ops exists for a reason
> Sofia: has anyone seen my blue umbrella
> Tomasz: the pigeon took it