I've lost the only key...

[Inrealtroublenow]

To the laptop cabinet in the office. All our laptops are stored in there. Feel sick at having to admit that to boss tomorrow. Looked everywhere in office/ home/ coat/ bag. I was the only one in yesterday and today so it's definitely me and not anyone else. Was told when I started (relatively recently) to protect key with my life because it's the only copy.

Have you got a hole in your coat pocket, check it's not gone into your coat lining. Speaking from experience!

Here

Check under mats and seats in car. Check if your pockets in your coat have a tiny hole in the bottom - the key could have worked its way into the lining. I once lost the key to a desk when I was temping at a job. Found it months later, probably about a year, in my car.

Aw I understand, it's an awful feeling. I have been off work over the Christmas period and on my very first day back in the new year had to inform work that I had broken my laptop while setting it up again :(

They just can't make it a big deal. They should have had contingency and anyway, no decent person is going to make you feel anywhere near as bad as you have made yourself feel. I was also wondering whether breaking expensive work equipment could be a sackable offence or irrationally wondering whether I would be forced back into the office but of course it was all fine and everything has been sorted.

I'm sure it will be the same for you!!

Aaagh sorry - see it’s a laptop cabinet not filing cabinet

And yes, absolutely do say a prayer to St. Anthony. It’s worked time and time again for myself and other MNetters. I think it helps your subconscious to access your memories.

@SmallGreenStripes

You can buy keys! I bet you can get a copy on Amazon. I kid you not. Does the lock have anything on it?

Yes and whilst your at it, spare keys and a really big bright jpkeyring. They are a few quid on Amazon or the cabinet makers website.

You won’t lose your job over this, it would only highlight flaws in their process. It’s seems silly to just hang the key near the locked cupboard !
Make sure you re-check the obvious places like pockets again as sometimes when your panicking you don’t check properly and could easily miss them.

First of all calm down, you're not going to lose your job!

Deep breaths, you won't find it in 'panic mode'.

It's easy enough to get locks opened & keys replaced, it's a bit of a hassle because everyone's laptop is in there, but it's most certainly not the end of the world!

It's most likely to be somewhere daft like on the kitchen side where you took your dirty much or the fridge where you put the milk back.

How far away is work, can you enter the building at this time of night?

If it's not too far & you can get in I'd go back, think about other things you might have done in your rush to get DS. Scooped pens etc into a drawer, cup etc into the kitchen, popped to the loo... it's almost certainly somewhere safe that you've just inadvertently 'put it down'.

Stop stressing yourself out, it's just a bloody key that can be replaced!!

FAR more importantly, how is DS?

Does the cabinet lock have a small number etched on it? It’s n ormally on the barrel, if so you can get a replacement key for the cabinet

Surely they are insured for stuff like this?

If it lives on a hook are you sure you’re the one that lost it? If you remember locking the cabinet when you left, perhaps you did put it back on the hook and it’s gone missing since then? It’s a stupid system. I hate keys for offices they always go missing! It’s a little mistake, it’s not as if the laptops are gone forever or anything. It’ll be easy to get into one way, just the cost of replacing the cabinet / lock and a lesson learned I would have thought.

yes, 9/10 it's somewhere you just put it down when you were rushing - on the side in the toilet, or by the sink when you washed out a coffee mug. Go back over everything once more, even places you think you looked - even places like heaps of paperwork

I picked the lock on the cabinet we had here - I had received a set of lock picks weirdly in the secret santa and thought I'd give it a go! So a locksmith can probably get you into it if you can't jimmy it any other way.

@Inrealtroublenow

I'm just wondering if it's something I could lose my job for. My boss seems lovely. It's just such a stupid mistake.

No of course not. This is the fault of the company, not you.

I doubt you'd lose your job - why on earth have they only got one key!?

@Inrealtroublenow

If locksmith has to bust lock (which is looking more and more likely) will the whole cabinet need replacing or just the lock? God I feel so stupid.

There is a number on the lock of the cabinet.

Email that to Facilities Management so they can order a spare or three!

It's not your fault the manager can't organise a piss up in a brewery.

You can get a skeleton key for a metal cabinet. Look at the internet, I did in a previous job when a key went missing

@WonderfulYou

NRTFT isn’t there a MNer that can apparently find lost things. Not sure of their username but you don’t lose anything by giving it a shot.

@WonderfulYou yes there is but we asked her to find stuff and ever since that thread she's been missing........

You are looking for it too frantically.

I put my debit card in the inside pocket of my handbag as I left a shop. When I got to the car 2 mins later I thought I’d best put it safely in my purse but it had vanished. I retraced my steps, asked in the shop, scoured the car park, emptied my bag inside out into the boot of the car then, with no sign of it, frantically cancelled my card. It was a total PITA to update all my apps with my new card details when some wouldn’t auto fill.

A couple of months later -there it was in the inside pocket of my handbag

They won’t fire you for losing a key. They didn’t fire the person that lost the other one…did they?
They should have had it copied.

@Inrealtroublenow

Yes, 1 key had already been lost before I started which is why I was told to be so careful with second key. Why no one thought to copy it I will never know!

i love the way they have such foolproof security in place its clearly working...

what does say about them OP? (clue: it's not you)

Breath OP.

Let me tell you the tale of how I once lost the Duty Manager Safe key, for the hotel which had 9 grand stored in it.

There was no spare, the safe was now compromised as anyone could have the key.

Not only did it cost the company a locksmith and Safecracker it also cost them a new lock on the safe....not cheap.

I did not loose my job. We trawled CCTV, you can see me with the duty manager keys on a key loop on my trousers, I then enter the bar area to deal with a stag do, keys are still there, then I go to one of the corridors to deal with housekeeping issue keys are still there, I get back to the office keys gone. Nobody could figure out how they just dissapeard off my trousers 😳 we searched everywhere I had been. It was bizzare.

But yes, I didn't loose my job. You'll be fine. Trust me. Locksmith can just change the lock and give you new keys.

Are there key hooks for anything else? I panicked at misplacing a key once at work but it was on another set of hooks in a different room, one I was more familiar with using.

Not on top of the cabinet or in draws close to it?

Sleep on it, sometimes the calm jogs the memory.

Think of it as doing them a favour OP, if you need the lock replaced then you can have more than 1 key

Does the office have CCTV ? Could you look at that / get the caretaker / security to look at it to see whether you put the key in your bag / pocket / on the hook or wherever after you locked it ?

I couldn't help wondering what the point of hanging the key up in the office is.