It began as an easy and fairly innocuous job. The only downside was that it had to be finished by Monday. But I was just the technical writer and my role was secondary. Or so I thought. 

The content was being emailed to me by another person. A communications document for a new software implementation. All I had to do was wait: then review, resequence and summarise. 

So the emails went backward and then forward. Each time I received the emailed document, me being me, I created a new version. Besides being good practice, it meant that the email trail was a change journal. Version control. 

Each time, I made the requested changes and sent it back. No slip-ups if any content was lost. Or so I thought. 

Sunday came and went, Monday too. Tuesday morning, at coffee my colleague says to me,”Your name has been mentioned.”

I looked at him puzzled. 

“So-and-so said that you deleted content from the communications document.” 

I stared. I shook my head.

“I have the email trail. I made a copy each time I received the document.” Version control. Or so I thought. 

I’d been iced. 

So-and-so didn’t discuss anything with me. Our supervisor didn’t discuss anything to me. The next I heard about it was when our managing consultant convened a meeting. 

“Version control,” I said as I explained. Or so I thought. But I had been iced cold.