zombie contract

A zombie contract or zombie agreement is effectively dead, and yet it lives on in an organisation, being automatically renewed with little thought or consideration being given to it. These are contracts which, when they are first set up, are full of life and generate much activity. Time goes by, the initial flurry fades away, the people involved leave or go to some other department so that no one can remember why or how the agreements were set up and what they were supposed to be for.  Yet those who have inherited the zombies hesitate to bring the contract or agreement  to an end because they are nervous about who has what rights. Worse still is the situation where there is no end date in the contract so theoretically it could go on forever.

 Business jargon is full of colourful imagery. I can imagine the zombie contracts roaming the corridors until someone has the nerve to become the zombie slayer.