I lost the key at work

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el Jay

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
284
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Location
Near Philadelphia
So after being unemployed for a few months earlier this year (and gaining about 20 pounds from depressed-eating and no motivation to exercise), I finally managed to get a temp contract job at a call center for benefits offered by various companies. This was not only a blessing because it was a job, but one where I didn't need to be on my feet, which tend to hurt unbearably if I stand on them all day (and this is what caused me to have to quit my previous job).

And the job is going quite well. Not sure if I'll be hired on permanently, as it was a 6-8 week contract with possibility for extension (no promise of hiring though) to deal with the increased call volume as their clients had their 2016 open enrollment.

But of course, no silver cloud could possibly come without a gray lining. We each have a key to the room the company is renting for the temps in the office complex, and we have to surrender it upon finishing the contract. There was a key agreement we signed that we'd have to pay to replace the locks if we lost the key.

So I kept it in the pocket of my work pants at all times, and then eventually set it on my dresser for safe keeping, since I live only 10 minutes away and never really needed it (I'm never the first one in). But now it's gone. And I have no ******* idea where.

Now I spend half of my days terrified this'll ruin my standing with the supervisors and rob me of the chance to use them as very positive and recent references for future job applications. And the fee for losing the key was $100, although I for some reason think that it said $100 per key (meaning over $1000 total), so I'm scared of that, too, since either way is more than I can afford.

This just confirms for me that I'll just end up ******* up anything I try to do that goes well. I'm never gonna dare be optimistic or feel good about anything ever again, because clearly I'm not allowed to.
 
It doesn't seem like that big of a deal. If you need the new key just tell them you need a new key. If you have to pay $100 then that's not that bad. We all had our own badges when I worked at a call center. $25 to replace. It was no big deal if you needed a new one. Everyone makes mistakes. You're fine.

I don't think it would ruin everything.
 
It couldn't have grown legs and walked away. It's somewhere in your home. Try to remember the very last time you had it and what you did with it. Check underneath everything. Check in everything. Did you move it or put it in something else thinking it was a safer keeping? Many times, I've misplaced items because I moved it thinking it would be better here or there, or that I'd remember putting it there better, and I completely forgot I had moved it from the original spot.
 
You can still try a trick called retracing your steps. Go to the place you were when you realized the key was missing, then go to the place you were right before then, and so on, working backwards. This trick often works in finding stuff that gets put in a strange place because we get absent-minded. I do it all the time and have learned not to panic when I end up finding my wallet, with my ID in it, sitting in the middle dresser drawer on top of my underwear. :D
 
Could you borrow someone else's key and take it to a locksmith so s/he can cut another one?
 
A 100 bucks for loosing a key? That is a bit extreme, especially since it seems like they are giving them out like candy. They certainly don't need to give one to every person and especially not new hires. This seems like a scam of sorts to try and make money off of their employees. This is the first time I've heard of a company giving out keys like that and making people sign an expensive contract. That's just insane, it doesn't cost that much to have a key made, and I doubt if they hand them out like they do it can't be any kind of special key.
 
Sci-Fi said:
A 100 bucks for loosing a key? That is a bit extreme, especially since it seems like they are giving them out like candy. They certainly don't need to give one to every person and especially not new hires. This seems like a scam of sorts to try and make money off of their employees. This is the first time I've heard of a company giving out keys like that and making people sign an expensive contract. That's just insane, it doesn't cost that much to have a key made, and I doubt if they hand them out like they do it can't be any kind of special key.
It's a security thing. It's not the cost of replacing the key but replacing the entire lock because someone who now has it might be able to get in and do anything they want when they are inside. Buying a new lock and hiring someone to replace it could easily cost $100 or so. It doesn't sound like a scam at all to me. I think it's probably justifiable.

In any case, I agree that looking absolutely everywhere for that key would be a good idea. Move furniture if you have to and look in your car and around where you normally park. Look in all the pockets of your clothes, look in bathrooms, laundry rooms, and absolutely everywhere around where you last saw it (on the dresser). Also look everywhere in any drawers, jars, bowls, or anything else you might have ever put it in. Also check drawers at work, too. Maybe you took it out there for some reason.
Nothing just disappears. Physics doesn't work like that. :)
 
Relax. If you set it in the same place and never picked it up it HAS to be around somewhere. You should just have a good look. It's understandable for this type of thing to bring negativity and unbalance your mind.

Sci-Fi said:
A 100 bucks for loosing a key? That is a bit extreme, especially since it seems like they are giving them out like candy. They certainly don't need to give one to every person and especially not new hires. This seems like a scam of sorts to try and make money off of their employees. This is the first time I've heard of a company giving out keys like that and making people sign an expensive contract. That's just insane, it doesn't cost that much to have a key made, and I doubt if they hand them out like they do it can't be any kind of special key.

My place is similar, but each employee doesn't get a key. It's a secure site so managers and supervisors have a key since no security work after 7pm. They're pretty expensive too at something like £50 for a key., It would be better if they had some sort of code you could use instead of something you can loose.
 
I've already looked everywhere for the key. Under furniture, in drawers, in pockets of all of my clothes, in every item in the laundry bin, etc. It's simply nowhere to be found. What bothers me so much about it is I'm usually excellent at keeping track of important things like that. I'm not the type to go and lose track of things other people trust me with.

But it's probably a moot point now anyways. I received notification the day after I posted this that my contract was going to be ended on Friday (and it's Monday now), so I'm back to being unemployed. I sort of cheated about turning in the key, too. I had a duplicate made of another key that was the same type (left over from where I used to live). So I gave them that one instead, and they didn't bother checking it. If at some point that do check and find out it's not the correct key and call me, I can just claim I must've accidentally given the wrong key because it was the same exact design as one of my other keys.

I guess all of this really does just show that I'm not allowed to ever be hopeful, though.
 
el Jay said:
I guess all of this really does just show that I'm not allowed to ever be hopeful, though.

I don't see how you go from "I lost a key" to this.
Actually, I take that back because depression and anxiety can distort one's thinking. A depressed or anxious mind can turn a manageable event into what it believes to be a catastrophe.
Did your thought that you might have to pay $1,000 for new keys come true? No. But the issue here goes much deeper than a lost key.
I'm sorry that you're unemployed now and I hope you're able to find something again soon, please keep us updated on how you're doing.
The next time life throws a problem at you (and it will, it always does), I hope you're able to manage it effectively without jumping to "I'm not ever allowed to be hopeful or have good things happen to me".

-Teresa
 
el Jay said:
I guess all of this really does just show that I'm not allowed to ever be hopeful, though.
Hey, I don't know why you think that because you got away with not having to pay a ton of money to replace a dumb little key. That's a good thing. That should give you some hope that things will be fine, not take it away.
Just take this as a sign to be a little more careful with the 'important things' in the future. Lesson learned. Sure maybe this job didn't work out right now but if you keep looking there will be another.
Create your own hope. That's how hope works. :)
 
If they try come after you tell them to go jump in lake, they accepted the key and didn't check it that is there loss.

Still think it's a scam don't care what the situation is. If the keys were that expensive or they'd have to replace the lock then why give everyone a key, that is just stupid on their part. I don't know of any place who gives every employee access to the building either. My boss didn't give me a key to his place right away and he's known me for going on thirteen years now. I still don't have a proper access code for the alarm system either, I just use his that he told me. So any place that is going to give everyone a key and force them sign a contract is just looking to make some easy extra cash off of their employees. Especially if they are just renting this place, odds are the owners would change the locks after so many renters or the next ones coming in would have them changed for security reasons.
 
Sci-Fi said:
If they try come after you tell them to go jump in lake, they accepted the key and didn't check it that is there loss.

Still think it's a scam don't care what the situation is. If the keys were that expensive or they'd have to replace the lock then why give everyone a key, that is just stupid on their part. I don't know of any place who gives every employee access to the building either. My boss didn't give me a key to his place right away and he's known me for going on thirteen years now. I still don't have a proper access code for the alarm system either, I just use his that he told me. So any place that is going to give everyone a key and force them sign a contract is just looking to make some easy extra cash off of their employees. Especially if they are just renting this place, odds are the owners would change the locks after so many renters or the next ones coming in would have them changed for security reasons.

It was a small office in the same building as their main office that was rented for the seasonal temp employees. It was a key to that office only, since the building itself is a corporate complex building with multiple offices, and the lease on that office expires soon (regardless of how long anyone is kept on).

And to the others, the reason why I'm so hung up on "I'm not allowed to think something good will happen" is because it's true. This situation is just the latest example. I can't even remember the last time I thought to myself "hey, this is going well, maybe I can finally be happy about it and not constantly worried it's going to end abruptly" where I started thinking more positively and DIDN'T have it end abruptly shortly thereafter (usually on the order of within a week afterwards). Relationships, projects, plans with friends, you name it. Sure, sometimes things work out, but those examples I usually stay pessimistic about and assume they won't happen or plans will fall apart up until they've happened already. So it's not like I'm not allowed to have or experience good things. I'm just not allowed to think positively or be optimistic. I have to constantly be on guard and expect failure from anything and everything, or else I'm robbed of the thing I'm finally feeling good about.
 
el Jay said:
And to the others, the reason why I'm so hung up on "I'm not allowed to think something good will happen" is because it's true. This situation is just the latest example. I can't even remember the last time I thought to myself "hey, this is going well, maybe I can finally be happy about it and not constantly worried it's going to end abruptly" where I started thinking more positively and DIDN'T have it end abruptly shortly thereafter (usually on the order of within a week afterwards). Relationships, projects, plans with friends, you name it. Sure, sometimes things work out, but those examples I usually stay pessimistic about and assume they won't happen or plans will fall apart up until they've happened already. So it's not like I'm not allowed to have or experience good things. I'm just not allowed to think positively or be optimistic. I have to constantly be on guard and expect failure from anything and everything, or else I'm robbed of the thing I'm finally feeling good about.
You're not really listening to what I've said. And maybe I didn't explain it very much, but I figured you would still get the message.

I used to think pessimistically about everything, too. Like you I always thought that if something good happened there was always going to be something bad next. And more often than not it came true. But you know what? I moved on. Every single time.
Eventually I just got plain tired of worrying about 'what was next?' and I just went with it. I started doing things just because I wanted to and stopped worrying about the consequences or the 'inevitable outcome'. And you know what? My life got so much better. It just did.
That wasn't "luck" either. I've never really had "luck" on my side. That was purely because when I stopped looking for the next bad thing to happen I was just moving on quicker, I was more willing to take chances, and I was generally a happier-minded person who wasn't always so pathetically negative all the time. People see that kind of thing, too. And they are more open to people who aren't negative.
And you know what happened next? I even started to think positively after a while. I started to think that maybe I wasn't just a loser. That maybe I wasn't just some freak. Maybe I wasn't worthless. Maybe, just maybe, I actually had potential. Potential to fulfill my dreams. A real chance to look at the future with hope. Something I absolutely never could have done before, because I never let myself do it.

And, I'll tell you now. honeysuckle still happens. But I move on, as always. I will never be like I used to be anymore. And, no matter what happens I will have hope. Even if I look death in the face tomorrow I will smile at him and laugh. 'Cause that's just what I do now.

So let me tell you something you might not be able to tell yourself right now. You have potential. You can have hope. You can be happy. So just try it. Let yourself smile. Do not worry about the things to come because they aren't here yet.
 

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