The Missing Report

On Monday morning, Ines opened the shared folder and found nothing. The quarterly report, which the team finished on Friday, was not there. She checked the recycle bin, the backup and her emails, but there was no trace of it. The meeting with the directors was at eleven.

“Someone must have deleted it by accident,” said Paul. “It can’t have been Dana,” Ines answered. “She left at noon on Friday, before we added the final tables.” Paul shrugged. “Then it might be the new intern. He can open the folder.”

The intern, Adrian, went pale when they asked him. “I only moved a few files to a different folder,” he said. “I didn’t delete anything.” Ines took a deep breath. She wanted to shout, but it would not help. Together they searched the archive and found the report under a long, confusing name.

“I should have saved a copy on my own computer,” Ines said. She turned to Adrian. “And you should have told us about the folders.” Paul laughed with relief. “We didn’t need to panic, but I’m glad we started looking early.”

The meeting went well in the end. Afterwards, the team agreed on a new rule: nobody changes the name, moves or deletes shared files without sending a message to the group. Ines pinned a note to the wall: Save twice. Ask once.