Thanks For Lookin’ Out, Boss

I am in charge of ordering uniforms and other supplies for my company. I go on vacation for a week, and when I come back, my entire office — which is really an extra-large storage closet with my desk in it — looks like it has been robbed.

Me: “[Manager], what happened in my office?”

Manager: “We needed some stuff.”

Me: “Why didn’t you call me?”

Manager: “I wasn’t going to bother you on vacation.”

Me: “Then why didn’t you clean up the mess?”

Manager: “Oh, it wasn’t me. I didn’t go in there.”

Me: “So, who did? They need to get in there and put everything back. What was taken?”

Manager: *Irritated* “Two guys said they needed new uniforms, so I told them to go get them, and I guess they couldn’t figure out your organization.”

Me: “But—”

Manager: “Just clean it up.”

I go back to my office, angry. My organization is pretty simple to me — stacks of shirts and office supplies all labeled by name and description, foods and drinks labeled by expiration date — but maybe it confused the people who went in there. I start cleaning up and checking the stock only to see that a lot of things are missing. 

Me: “[Manager], I need to know who was in my office and I need them to come to me. I am not going to be responsible for this.”

Manager: “For what?”

I hand over a list.

Me: “This is everything that was in my office when I left last week.”

I give him a second list.

Me: “This is everything that is no longer there. All these uniforms, five boxes of printer ink, two walkie-talkies and their charge bases, and boxes of snacks and cases of soda that would have lasted us weeks have vanished. It’s going to cost several hundreds of dollars to replace everything.”

Manager: *Looking over the list* “Well, I still don’t know who it was, so you’ll just have to figure out what to do.”

Me: “Why did you let someone go in there unaccompanied? I just don’t understand what—”

Manager: “[My Name]! Stop! Just go order whatever is missing.”

So I did. I reordered everything that went missing. Later, I got called into a meeting with finance to ask why I was spending so much money on things we just bought not too long ago. I told them what had happened and that [Manager] was indifferent to the theft. [Manager] was pulled into his own meeting later, and I was given a new doorknob with a lock so that I am the only one with access to the supplies.