When someone makes a wrong accusation against you because they don't know you are innocent, I can understand. But if they knew you were innocent, and still accuse you of something, it's another level.
That is exactly what happened to me.
On the 2nd of August this year, I was accused in my organization of being responsible for the loss of an important document.
So, it was my colleague. A document was given to him for us to work on.
It was an ICT documentation and happened to be given to him at close hour, so he took it home with him and misplaced it.
The next day, he came to the office. Now, I'm not even aware of any document given to him. He just walked to where I'm sitting, with our boss there, and asked me, "Where is the document I gave you yesterday?"
For once, I don't even know if he was referring to me, so I heard but didn't respond.
He asked again, and this time, he shouted my name, "Patricia, where is the document?"
"Which document?" I replied, confused.
He said, "The one the boss gave to me at close hour, so you said I should give it to you to put it in the office so we can work on it today."
"Excuse me," I said. "What are you saying?"
This sounds totally weird to me because he is saying things that we both know I never did, so his conscious lies and all-knowing accusations left me speechless.
I couldn't say a word because I'm astonished.
You should see the way our boss was just staring at the both of us.
But my colleague kept repeating these words to solidify his false accusations: "How could you forget that you collected something just yesterday, eh?"
So, the boss asked him, "Are you sure she collected these documents?" He said yes, she did.
And she asked me, "Are you sure you didn't collect these documents?" I replied, "Yes, I didn't."
Angrily, she said, "Then both of you are going to pay for it. What nonsense is this that you two are saying?"
When month-end came, 50 percent was deducted from his salary and mine to pay for the lost documents.
I kept wondering, why would he do such a thing, knowing fully well that I'm innocent?
Now, what would you expect my reaction to be?
I pretended nothing happened and I greeted and talked to him normally as if nothing happened. I noticed fear in him whenever I'm trying to be nice to him.
So, last week Sunday, I was at home and suddenly I heard a knock at the door.
I went to get the door, and it's him. He came over and said he had a confession to make. Immediately, my mind just went to the incident, and I knew it must have something to do with it.
"Okay, come in," I said.
We sat, and he began confessing to me that he was the one that took those documents home and misplaced them, but because he was caught up with so much debt, he couldn't afford to lose the whole of his salary to pay for the missing document, so he did what he did.
I told him that wasn't the way he should have faced the issue.
If you had been honest about the document and the condition, the organization itself would carry the burden. We would have taxed ourselves to pay. But accusing me wasn't just right. If I had lost my job, how's it going to be then?
But he kept apologizing, so I forgave him and told him it would be more proper to go to the boss and apologize too.
And that's how the whole thing was settled.
Thank you for reading.
Image source pixabay[https://pixabay.com/illustrations/bullying-accuse-emphasize-fear-6932049/]
