“Hey, Kate, could you come to the office?”

Tania’s voice was firm, somewhat less friendly that I was used to. Shit, I know I was ten minutes late, but I didn’t need this. Surely not?

“Thanks for coming in.” Tania’s voice was a little uncomfortable.

I looked at Tania, eyebrows raised.  I was truely perplexed by what was going on.

“Look, Kate, How long have you been working here?” Sam was not quite as assertive as Tania usually, but his voice came across as distinctly pissed.

I couldn’t help myslef, my voice was trembling, I was a bit scared. “About nine months now, I think”

“Were you aware of our policy on using the photocopier?” Sam’s voice was a little high, he was obviously not comfortable.

“No, policy, what policy?” My voice was slightly shrill, I tried to remember, I don’t think I copied anything? Well, Tania asked me to copy a press release, I think I copied the page after it. “I think I copied a page for Tania?”

“Well, Kate, we sent out the copy you sent, unfortunately you copied the next page which had another part-article on it. The person who wrote that article has accused us of plagiarism and copyright breach”  Sam paused.  “As we put our press release on our website, the person who wrote the article you part copied contacted our ISP who hosts our website.  They turned off our site, noting section 92a of the Copyright Act.”

My breath was taken away, I made a fucken simple mistake. For fuck sake, Acme Trading make seventy percent of their revenue through their website.

“Kate, we have no option but to let you go due to gross negligence, effective immediatelty.” Sam’s voice felt pained. It was obvious he didn’t feel this was appropriate.