In my very first job after graduating university, one of my tasks for the team was to do the ordering of supplies. The one supply person in each team had to be nominated, approved and signatures required and kept on file somewhere in the organisation. (It was a huge government department.)
After coming back from my first recreation leave/holidays I was ordering supplies for the team and noticed that the previous page (the carbonless copy page) in the order book (yes, this was in the old days of pen and paper internal order pads), had an order I didn’t place. As I scanned down the page, I was shocked to see my signature forged.
I took this to my boss and asked if she was aware of this and the shock continued. Her response to me was, “It was only for milk, what does it matter!”
I’m not often speechless but I was in that moment.
I took a deep breath, collected myself and said, “It’s not the milk, it’s the forged signature that I have a concern with.”
It was right then and there her demeanour changed and our relationship changed forever. She asked me what I was going to do about it and quickly followed that with, “I really think you’re over reacting about all of this.”
That night was a fairly interesting and sleepless night exploring:
