The job that almost wasn't...

I played hooky from work last night. I was exhausted from lack of sleep because of the early morning trip to the airport. When I got home from the airport, I did not have the luxury of being able to crawl back in bed. The two oldest kids had dental appointments. By the time we got them there, I was so tired I felt sick. (I guess the older I get, the less cool pulling an all-nighter is.) I called in sick to work at nine in the morning. I knew that without sleep, I would be totally worthless. Here is my mistake. I did not take the time to find the file that I was given during my orientation. I cheated, and I called the number to security that was on my caller ID. (I had called home from the phone in our security office at work just the night before.) So I decided to take the easy way, and call the security desk to ask for the call in number. They gave it to me, no questions asked. That was their mistake. I called in and got a recording. It went something like this. "Thank You for calling the (insert company name here) call in line. Please leave your name, supervisors name, department, phone number where you may be reached, and reason for calling in today....Beep." I did just that. I left everything they had asked for. And feeling confident that I had done my duty of informing the company of my impending absence a minimum of two hours ahead of my shift, I went to bed. And I slept. I got up to use the restroom. And then I slept some more. The phone woke me at nineteen minutes after five in the evening. It was someone from my company. Well, sort of. See my company has a few locations. Two of them sit on one property. Apparently they share more than just the ground they sit on. Apparently, they also share the same outgoing phone number from their respective security desks. They do not however share the same incoming number. Nor do they have a joint call in line. I did not reach the plant I worked for when I called. I reached it's sister plant. I informed the wrong plant of my absence. My plant thought I had not called. As soon as I was told of my mistake, I called the right plant. I explained what had happened to my supervisor. I do not think she believed me. When I got to work today, I went to speak to a woman in personnel, she is usually quite kind and helpful. Not today. I was informed that with no proof that I had called in, my absence was to be treated as a "no call/no show". I would receive three points for this offence. I immediately contacted the other plant, and told them of my predicament. A very kind lady there told me she would be happy to inform "our" people that I had indeed called. In fact, she would fax over a signed document to attest to it. Problem solved. Right? Wrong. I was told that I had made the mistake, and now I had to live with it. This seems woefully unfair to me. I almost quit. Right then and there. But to quit means to admit defeat. (Something I have never been good at.) I just couldn't do it. Tomorrow I will get to work an hour early. I will plead my case to our plant manager. I have been told he is a kind man. We shall see. I may quit yet. But first I will exhaust all options. If treating employees this way is company policy, I will inform them that I no longer wish to be part of their company. I hope they do the right thing. I did the right thing. I made a mistake, but I did call in as per instructions. When I realized my error, I promptly attempted to fix it. I freely admitted the fault that lies with me. What happens next will be their move. But I have been known to contact CEO's in the past when things were not running smoothly with their companies. I may just have to do it again. I will let you know what happens.. Goodnight.