Article

Below, you will find two rather remarkable, and somewhat disconcerting accounts. When you read them you would probably agree that each is as unlikely as the other. However, one of these accounts is purported to be a true story. I am not at liberty to tell you which one that might be, but given that one of them is claimed to have actually happened, either one could be true!

Account 1: Good Intentions

Bob had worked at Live Long Life for the past six years. His department was responsible for the communication of fund performance and other administrative matters to investment clients. Within the department, Bob was responsible for maintaining the investment client database. He was a hard worker and would sometimes work at home to catch up on database administration if the need arose. To do this he would copy segments of the investment client file to a CD so he could load the data onto his home computer.

Recently, Bob and his wife, Sue, purchased a notebook computer. They felt this fit their lifestyle better than a desktop, because they traveled to their cottage on weekends. Given that the cottage had an internet connection, Bob could keep up on his work and the kids could play games or surf the web.

One weekend, Sally, Bob and Sue’s daughter, had to complete a school report on the changing fall colours. There was an excellent variety of hardwood trees around the cottage, and Sally spent a good part of Saturday afternoon gathering leaves and entering data into a spreadsheet.

That evening, after Sally had gone off to bed, Bob opened up his client spreadsheet and updated a few address fields on the file. He also checked a few of the fund values against some standard calculations to ensure that everything seemed in order. Having completed this, he copied his updated spreadsheet to a CD and filed it away in his briefcase.

On Sunday evening, while Bob was unloading the car, Sally asked her mother if she could take the notebook to school to show the spreadsheet tables that she had made as part of her presentation. Sue readily agreed, but did not mention this to Bob.

When Sally took her computer in for the presentation, her teacher, Mrs. Purdy, hooked it up to classroom projector so that Sally’s data could be displayed on the large screen. When Sally began her presentation she opened the spreadsheet application, clicked on File, and then on the first file name that appeared.

Suddenly, there was a large gasp! As it turned out, Sally had opened Bob’s spreadsheet by mistake, and on the third line of the data Mrs. Purdy saw her sister’s name, address and fund information. She quickly turned off the projector and took the first opportunity to contact her sister, Miss Jones. Understandably, Miss Jones was furious and called Live Long Life, threatening to inform the press. After a while she was consoled and took no further action.

What happened to Bob? Let’s just say his career stalled.

Account 2: Guess What Blew In

Have you ever seen a piece of paper blowing around in the wind? Have you ever picked it up and been surprised by what you found? Art Notly certainly was!

But let’s start at the beginning.

For some younger readers out there, it might be surprising to learn that back in the early 70’s, monitors, or Video Display Terminals (VDTs) as we called them then, were very rare. In the insurance industry, to get policyholder information we had to request a hardcopy policy status printout (PSP). Typically, they were requested one day and then printed the next. Once viewed, they were to be destroyed.

Procedures at New View Life were that, once policy status printouts were no longer needed, they were to be placed in a special tray for pick up and destruction.

One morning, however, Maxwell Jones was in a bit of a hurry. He was late for a meeting and forgot to put his PSPs out for pick up. He realized this when he got back from the meeting. Given that there were only a few, he thought it would probably suffice to simply toss them into the regular garbage.

It was a windy day when the garbage was picked up later that week. Yes, just around the corner from New View Life, one of the PSPs was caught up by the breeze and floated upward from the back of the truck. Unfortunately, it did not keep going up. As suspected, it settled back to earth and rested along the edge of the curb.

Shortly thereafter somebody came along and picked it up. That person was Art Notly, and he was absolutely dumfounded at what he saw. There, in his very hands, was a somewhat worn and dirty, but still very readable printout of Art’s own policy information.

Art quickly contacted New View Life, demanding an explanation. As you might guess, this was not a high moment in customer relations at New View Life.

What about Maxwell? Everything was hushed. Maxwell never did realize what had happened!