This Secretary Hat-ched A Great Plan

It’s tough being a termite technician during the summer. You work harder than the pest control techs, and you do follow-up work on their accounts for unpleasant jobs like checking rat traps and removing dead animals.

Boss: “[My Name], I know it’s late, but I need you to go to this customer’s house and check the rat traps in his attic.”

In my mind: “I was supposed to be off hours ago and it’s 1,000 degrees. I am so tired…”

I get to the house, and the owner is there and already has the attic ladder pulled down for me. He’s a nice guy; we talk for a minute and I feel better about being there. When I get into the attic, I notice that it is large and has flooring; it’s not that bad at all. I check the traps and they’re all set and nothing is caught. I come down and talk with the owner again and get to call it a day.

A couple of days later, the boss calls me into his office and tells me to shut the door.

Boss: “Remember that house I sent you to to check the traps in the attic? Did you take that gentleman’s hat?”

I laugh at first. Then, “Oh, wait. He’s serious?!”

Me: “What? No, I didn’t take any hat. The guy was standing there the whole time.”

Boss: “Well, he says that the hat was on a workbench by the attic ladder and now he can’t find it. He thinks you took it.”

Me: “[Boss], I swear that I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

I notice that people at the office start treating me differently. This bothers me for weeks.

A month passes, and one day while I am turning in some paperwork at our office, a secretary says loudly:

Secretary: “Here’s [My Name]. I think you owe him an apology, [Boss]. And you need to tell that man to call him and apologize, too!”

The man had called a few days before to tell my boss that he’d found his hat; it was in the trunk of his car and he’d forgotten that he had put it there. He did not apologize for the accusation, and for some reason, my boss didn’t tell me the man had called. Had the secretary not said anything, I never would’ve known. And [Boss] never apologized, either.