Purpose of Observation

At the request of Morale and Retention, Officer Ellis was observed for one ordinary working day to provide staff with an example of routine departmental life.

No major incidents occurred.

This statement should be interpreted according to Morrigan Department standards.

08:12 | Shift Entry

Gareth arrives eighteen minutes before the mandatory start time, despite repeated confirmation that nobody expects him to do this.

He begins the morning by making tea and aligning the communal mugs by size.

One handle is facing inward.

Gareth notices.

Gareth corrects it.

His shoulders visibly relax.

The kettle boils without shrieking, leaking blood or attempting to answer a telephone that does not exist. Gareth records this in his personal notebook as a favourable start to the day.

08:27 | Auditory Disturbance

A filing cabinet in the west wing begins quietly reciting the names of deceased people.

Gareth approaches the cabinet with a legal pad and asks it to start again from the beginning.

The cabinet complies.

He transcribes forty-three names, checks the spelling of three and asks for clarification on a Jones whose date of death could refer to either 1987 or 1997.

Once the list is complete, the cabinet falls silent.

Gareth forwards the names for cross-referencing and adds a note requesting that the cabinet use the deceased-person reporting form in future where practicable.

No escalation is deemed necessary.

09:41 | Entity Negotiation

A juvenile spectral hound is discovered attempting to consume a stack of laminated incident reports.

The entity maintains that lamination gives the paperwork a “snack wrapper” texture and therefore constitutes implied permission.

Gareth disagrees.

He explains that the plastic coating actually increases the seriousness of the offence because the forms cost more to replace.

The hound lies down on the floor and sighs at him.

Negotiations continue for eleven minutes.

A compromise is eventually reached. The hound is permitted to chew one corner from a blank, obsolete form under direct supervision.

Morale and Retention notes that this solution is not included in any current handling procedure but was, irritatingly, effective.

11:03 | Physiological Shift

While Gareth is alphabetising a backlog of files, an unidentified member of staff walks past and remarks that it has been “a quiet morning”.

Officer Ellis transforms immediately.

As the transformation appears accidental and Gareth displays no sign of distress, nearby staff elect not to interrupt him.

Now in Springer Spaniel form, Gareth resumes alphabetising.

He uses his nose to push folders into their correct positions, pausing twice to retrieve files that have slipped behind the cabinet.

Productivity increases by approximately fourteen per cent.

The sound of his tail repeatedly striking the linoleum is described by one witness as “far too cheerful for this building”.

12:18 | Midday Break

Gareth returns to human form shortly before lunch and eats a sandwich at his desk.

He removes the crusts.

Approximately thirty seconds later, he stops eating and looks at them.

He appears to reconsider several things about himself.

He replaces the crusts and finishes the entire sandwich.

When asked whether anything is wrong, Gareth says the sandwich “tastes a bit incorrect” but refuses to waste it.

13:02 | Poltergeist Activity

A lingering spirit in the break room begins flicking the overhead lights on and off to indicate a grievance.

Staff prepare to contact Spectral Resolution.

Gareth asks them not to.

He sits at the table and writes the spirit a short note explaining that repeated light flickering is making it difficult for people to work and asking whether it could express its concerns another way.

The lights stabilise.

Several seconds later, a faint sentence appears in condensation across the tabletop:

Sorry. Didn’t realise.

Gareth writes underneath:

No problem. Thank you.

The haunting is considered resolved.

15:46 | Internal Meeting

Gareth attends a briefing for which he is not scheduled.

When asked why he is there, he explains that there was an empty chair and leaving it unused while a meeting was taking place “felt wrong”.

He proceeds to take notes.

By the conclusion of the meeting, Gareth has produced a dated action list, clarified three unresolved responsibilities and added page references to two policies nobody else realised were relevant.

The lead researcher reads the notes twice and asks whether Gareth can attend every meeting from now on.

Gareth says he will check his diary.

17:01 | Shift Conclusion

Officer Ellis’s contracted working day ends.

Officer Ellis does not leave.

A filing error has been identified in the neighbouring department.

Gareth attempts to ignore it.

At 17:08, he walks past the relevant cabinet.

At 17:13, he walks past it again.

At 17:16, he returns carrying a pencil, a ruler and the expression of a man who has accepted defeat.

Corrective work begins.

18:39 | Departure

The filing discrepancy is resolved.

Gareth checks the office kettle, the windows and every light switch on his route to the exit.

He turns one light back on because Brenda is still working in Records.

He then leaves the building.

At 18:43, he returns to confirm that he did, in fact, lock the archive door.

He had.

Evaluation Summary

Officer Ellis continues to demonstrate exceptional diligence, patience and an unusually personal relationship with correct filing procedure.

His presence appears to have a measurable stabilising effect on staff, records, minor spectral entities and at least one emotionally complicated filing cabinet.

No concerns were identified during the observation period beyond the existing issue of accidental transformation following certain conversational triggers.

Recommendation: Probation continues.

Retention assessment: High priority.

Morale assessment: Staff report that things “feel less likely to go wrong” when Gareth is in the building.

Filed by: Morale and Retention, Personnel and Spectral Affairs