All of the clue answers are seven-letter words. The four-letter words on the mat are the results of jumping to the concluding parts of the clue answers, skipping a trigram in each case. Use the parenthetical numbers after each clue as an index into the trigram:
| Clue | Answer | Mat | Word | Trigram | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actress Jennifer who portrayed Joanna (2) | ANISTON | ANON | IST | S | |
| Bill Lumbergh's company (1) | INITECH | INCH | ITE | I | |
| Computer display (1) | MONITOR | MOOR | NIT | N | |
| Disregards (3) | IGNORES | IRES | GNO | O | |
| Ennui (1) | BOREDOM | BOOM | RED | R | |
| Milton has a red one (3) | STAPLER | STAR | PLE | E | |
| Navy vessel (2) | FRIGATE | FATE | RIG | I | |
| Often unproductive work event (3) | MEETING | MING | EET | T | |
| On fire (1) | BURNING | BING | URN | U | |
| One of the Bobs (1) | SLYDELL | SELL | LYD | L | |
| Peter with eight different bosses (2) | GIBBONS | GIBS | BON | O | |
| Recovers from a system crash, in a way (3) | REBOOTS | REBS | OOT | T |
The extracted letters, when placed on the mat, yield the final phrase:
| S | O | L |
| U | T | I |
| O | N | T |
| I | R | E |
The solution is TIRE.