"This clerk" one department head told me conversationally "was in my department. We had collected all the information and she/he had filled all the forms required for inspection by the medical council. It was saved on our computer. Then one day she/he got transferred to another department. She/he came back and deleted the file from the computer. We had no backup."
"Huh" I said, for both deletion of the file by the clerk and not having a backup by the department. Perhaps they trusted her/him. "Then what did you do?"
"When the file disappeared following her/his visit to the department, I checked the recycle bin. I found the file there. I restored it. The inspection could be carried out without any trouble."
Perhaps the clerk had been unhappy working in that department, I thought. But that did not justify deletion of the file. It was lucky that the clerk did not know about deleting a file bypassing the recycle bin, or emptying the recycle bin. It was even luckier that she/he did not know about permanently deleting a file so that it could not be restored using special software. Perhaps she knew about it, but did not have time to do it, or did not have the software installed there. My personal impression was that the reason was ignorance.
"Count this as your blessing" I said.
"Yes" said the department head with a happy grin.
(Note: the use of 'she/he' is to protect the identity of the person concerned.)
"Huh" I said, for both deletion of the file by the clerk and not having a backup by the department. Perhaps they trusted her/him. "Then what did you do?"
"When the file disappeared following her/his visit to the department, I checked the recycle bin. I found the file there. I restored it. The inspection could be carried out without any trouble."
Perhaps the clerk had been unhappy working in that department, I thought. But that did not justify deletion of the file. It was lucky that the clerk did not know about deleting a file bypassing the recycle bin, or emptying the recycle bin. It was even luckier that she/he did not know about permanently deleting a file so that it could not be restored using special software. Perhaps she knew about it, but did not have time to do it, or did not have the software installed there. My personal impression was that the reason was ignorance.
"Count this as your blessing" I said.
"Yes" said the department head with a happy grin.
(Note: the use of 'she/he' is to protect the identity of the person concerned.)
