A Dotted ‘T’ Crossed His ‘I’

Boss: “Okay, [My Name], have a seat. I’m sure you know why we’re meeting. Would you like the union steward to join us?”

Me: “I’m not sure why were meeting.”

Boss: “This is about the numerous next day air packages that you delivered late yesterday up in Oxford.”

Me: “No, it’s okay. I don’t need the union steward.”

Boss: “Okay, then. As you know [Our Company] is THE leader in global package transportation. We make it a point to dot all of our ‘I’s, cross all of our ‘T’s to make sure every package is delivered to each of our customers. Do you understand the severity of this, [My Name]? Each and every package you deliver is a contract that we have with each customer. Failure to deliver a package on time is a breaking of that contract, our word, our reputation. Do you understand?”

Me: “Yes, completely.”

Boss: “Every single person here from my position here as the head of this center to each and every person that loads the trucks to every delivery driver is part of this machine. No machine can work perfectly with missing or broken parts. Are you still with me?”

Me: “Yes.”

Boss: “To have this many missed packages, there just isn’t any excuse for it, [My Name]. You are given so many clear cut and precise tools to help you. Our system is designed to make sure everything is there for you. I just can’t understand just what went wrong. Unfortunately we’re going to have to write you up.”

Me: “Write me up for what?”

Boss: “ALL OF THE LATE PACKAGES YESTERDAY!”

Me: “I didn’t have any missed packages in Oxford yesterday.”

Boss: “There were three late packages yesterday in Oxford, [My Name]. You can’t talk yourself out of this.”

Me: “I wasn’t in Oxford yesterday, I was assigned to deliver packages down on Muhlhauser yesterday.”

(My boss suddenly goes quiet, and looks at his ‘dotted ‘I’ and crossed ‘T” flawless report.)

Boss: “Look. It says right here: you had three late air packages that were delivered at 10:01, 10:12, and 10:19.”

Me: “My employee number is ******7, this one reads ******9. I wasn’t here yesterday morning. I used vacation time to take my son to his orthodontist appointment.”

Boss: “Well, if that’s case you really need to let us know when you aren’t here so little mix-ups like this won’t happen and waste more of the company’s money. Try to be a little more communicative in the future, okay?

Me: “That report reads ‘scheduled off’ right next to my employee number.”

Boss: “This is how thorough we are, [My Name]. Without this sort of data we would fail in our contracts with our customers!”