Our company controls the access to the main building through Employee Pass Card. We gotta scan the Card at the lift to access any floor in the main building. There's a time setting to the access though. The Card only works between 8.20am to 8pm by default for all normal employees. The Management and some special staffs, such as the security guards, have extended access time. If a normal employee needs to have different access time, request has to be submitted to the Management, and once approved, the Facility Manager will have to program the Card for the special access time.
This access time control was a problem for me. I arrived at the company very early every morning, sometimes before 7.30am, even though the official working time begins at 8.30am. I was, and still am, always the first person to arrive at the company every day. However, i couldn't get into the building, or rather, i couldn't get to the floor where my seat was because my Card couldn't operate the lift at such early hour. So what i did was to sleep in the car until 8am, the time when the entrance at the staircase would be unlocked, and i could walk up the stairs to the office floor.
Then one morning, i decided to make use of the time to blog with the PC at the reception desk in the lobby. When i was waiting for the PC to start up, i opened the drawer of the reception desk and saw the receptionist's Employee Pass Card. I tried the Card at the lift and to my delight, the Card worked even before 8am! So i thought i found myself a solution -- i could use her Card to go up to the office floor.
I tried scanning her Card at the lift, pressed the number of the floor, ran back to the reception desk to put the Card back to the drawer, and ran to the lift again. I couldn't make it at all as the lift would have gone up the floor already. I tried it several times, but no matter how fast i tried to run, there was no way that i could reach the lift in time from the reception desk.
Then i decided to bring her Card to the office floor with me. I figured that as long as i put the Card back to the drawer before the receptionist arrived, she wouldn't notice i used her Card at all. I knew that she commute to work with the transport provided by the company, which always arrived at around 8.20pm or later. So i could place the Card back into the drawer after the doors at the staircase were unlocked and before the time she arrived.
This worked fine for a week or so, with me comfortably sitting at my desk before 8pm everyday, surfing or blogging, and the receptionist didn't know about it at all. Then, one fine morning, as i was happily drinking coffee at my desk while reading other blogs, it suddenly struck me that it was already 9am+ and the receptionist's Card was still sitting on my desk! I was totally dumbfounded and must have heard myself yelling "oh shit!!!" over hundreds times in my head.
There are two lessons to be learnt thus far:
Lesson #1 - When you get too comfortable with something, you will always lose sight of something else.
Lesson #2 - Never do something bad because it will always find a way to go wrong and bite you in the ass.
I immediately went down the stairs with the Card. As i was approaching the first floor, i could hear the receptionist talking to the cleaner (her good friend in the company). I peeped at the reception area from behind the door of the staircase, and i saw the two of them ransacking the drawers and looking high and low for the Card. At that moment, i really didn't know what to do.
Ok, i know i could have walked up to the receptionist and told her the truth, but as all other people who are guilty of something, i was too timid to do that. It certainly didn't help too when our receptionist was known to be quite an unfriendly and bossy person because she had been with the company for a very long time. Plus, she was born with a face that looked as if she was angry all the time when she wasn't smiling. And trust me, she hardly smiles. Uh huh, that's our receptionist for you.
Then i did a stupid thing on impulse. I took a deep breath and put on a fake front. I went up to her and acted surprised. I told her that i found her Card at the pantry under the water cooler, and asked if she had dropped her Card there. This was really a stupid move and i regretted it almost instantly. She took the Card and thanked me profusely. She then told me that she suspected the Security Guard took her Card to access the pantry for water. She immediately went to the Facility Manager's office and asked him to retrieve all the surveillance videos to find out who took her Card. By then, my mind was spewing thousands more "oh shit!!!!"
Here are another two lessons:
Lesson #3 - You may try to cover up a wrongdoing with a lie and appear to be the good guy, but it will eventually backfire.
Lesson #4 - Never do things on impulse. Always think over the consequences carefully.
The things had come to such situation that i had no choice but to confess my wrongdoing. What worried me was that the receptionist would for sure hate me because i took her Card and lied to her. She would for sure tell everyone in the company and might even complain it to the higher Management. Then i would be the most despised person in the company with the reputation as thief, liar and hypocrite.
That was the time when i needed to pull a few strings, or in fact, one string was all that i needed. I had always been in very good terms with the Facility Manager. I went to him, told him what happened, apologized and asked him not to disclose it to the receptionist. I hinted that this was a good lesson for the receptionist too since she shouldn't have left the Card in the drawer of the reception desk where anyone could access it easily. He agreed and said he would tell the receptionist that the surveillance videos didn't capture anything at all.
And so, i was off the hook just like that. I continue to be the likeable person in the company with the reputation of being nice, friendly and helpful, despite the fact that i'm actually a thief, liar and hypocrite.
And the lessons:
Lesson #5 - Honesty is always the best policy.
Lesson #6 - Always maintain a good relationship with people around you, as you never know when you would need their help.
Lesson #7 - Justify you act with some noble cause to make the mistake appeared to be insignificant.
Lesson #8 - Learn the art of strings-pulling as it could get you out of troubles even when you're in deep shit.
I hope my story illustrates the lessons well. If not, perhaps our "close-on-eye" MP could illustrate it even better.
