F*cked up massively - work related. Perspective needed

[Stupidworkgirl]

I have an important business trip abroad tomorrow which myself and several other colleagues are going on. It is a major event in our industry and we have been planning it for a while. I have done the majority of the planning and have enjoyed it and was excited to attend. Our company director is going along with my boss and several coworkers, one of which reports to me.

I have lost my passport. I only realised this at 4pm today when packing. I am meant to fly out on an early morning flight. We have a very tidy minimalist home and have searched everywhere, it is definitely not here. I last travelled a few months ago and can only think I dropped it somewhere between security and my car.

I have called my boss who has told the MD. My boss was understanding and kind about it, I don’t know what the MDs reaction was. I’m absolutely gutted. Missing out on the event is a horrible feeling but is actually the least of it, that will wear off once it is over at the end of this week. It is more the damage to my reputation and how people might think of me going forward. I’m honestly considering leaving and finding a new job, as I don’t know how I will mentally bounce back from it.

Looking for reassurance or perhaps any similar tales or fucking up at work.

Tucked inside a travel towel isn’t so far fetched. Travel wash bag, first aid kit, clipped into offshore paperwork etc.

As a junior employee, My exH once transferred over £47 million pounds to the wrong company... in Nigeria. His boss said he'd seen worse and told him not to worry. You'll be fine.

As an aside, you mention coming back late from your last trip to catch DD before bed and having work the next day, it's not in your desk drawer in the office is it??

My friend lost her passport, found it in some pots under the counter shed sat it on. She figures while doing the dishes it must have fallen or something... really nowhere is too odd!

I’ll definitely check at work tomorrow, I doubt I’ll get any actual work done as I’ll still be too mortified to focus. I’ll check my desk drawers and the bag with the safety gear in. I’ve already checked laptop bag which is here, I didn’t take the laptop bag on the last trip anyway though, I put my laptop in my rucksack.

This is definitely something that won’t impact on you or anyone else job wise long term. It’s embarrassing, but it happens.

It’s not a health and safety issue, you didn’t expose someone’s private life, no one lost a lot of money and no one was hurt. It’s not a huge fuck up workwise.

@StupidStupidworkgirl would anyone be at your work now? say security? could you call front desk and ask someone if they can check your desk for you? I don't know where you work but when I was in the office we had 24 hour security patrolling the building. could see if someone could take a look for you now?xx

Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions and general support. I’m going to try and get some sleep now, I’ll update from work tomorrow. Feels so surreal not to be going, it’s been talked about so much over the past few months, it’s hard to visualise myself just going to work tomorrow like normal.

OP, it happened to me a few years back (passport wasn't missing but out of date). It was for a meeting with very senior important people in my industry, potentially career changing, think Hollywood level. Gutted at the time, I'm normally super pedantic, but it's just one of those things.

Check under your car mats.

Also check that it hasn't slipped down through the lining of a jacket you were wearing. Sometimes you wouldn't even notice there was a tear.

Check under your mattress snd your child's bed and mattress. And behind the child's bed. Also is there a bedside locker in your child's bedroom, if there is check that too.

I once found my passport, the night before I was due to fly on holiday, down the back of a radiator...

I think I’m still in shock over this as it doesn’t even feel quite real, sort of feel drunk in a way

yet you felt you should immediately make a MN post AND ask for others’ stories. That’s cool

Go to both the airline's (who you flew with) website and airport's (where you landed) websites lost property. They'll list anything found on board or in arrivals.

You can also phone them or go directly to their airport desk, as they may have it there.

Take your bedside drawers apart, when we lost a passport it was wedged in between the drawer units, it had sirt of gone over the top and fell down .

If you dropped it in the airport or car park I'd assume whoever picked it up would give it to lost property or try and find on Facebook. Or maybe I live in a fantasy world!

This happened to me years ago. I don’t know if the rules have since changed, but you used to be able to get an expedited passport (approved and printed within 4 hours) for work-related reasons if the head of your organisation wrote a letter to the issuing passport authority (UK) to state that you needed it for a business trip. I booked a 9am appointment at the passport office and headed straight to the airport afterwards. It was a bit nerve-wracking but I made my 2pm flight!

If you are as meticulous as you say OP, then why didn't you notice the passport was missing when it came time to put it away after your last trip?

I work in a very male dominated organisation. One of our most senior colleagues was due to fly out with the team to seal a major business deal, she turned up at the wrong London airport and missed the flight.
At the end of the day, the deal was won, and nobody bats an eyelid. Your situation is nothing to worry about and you will remember it as a funny story one day.

Unnecessary and unhelpful.

Someone isn't everything 100% of the time... But their usual traits can still be used to describe them.

Any pockets on the back of the driver and passenger seats in your car?

Do you have an expired passport? You could always take that and chance it. I once mistakenly took an expired passport on a trip to France and no-one noticed until I was back at the UK border.
If you can make it to Germany you can apply for an ETD to come back with... just say the passport was lost in Germany.

I thought it might spark a memory... of putting it somewhere unusual, perhaps.

Really hope it turns up in the morning Op but even if it doesn't, I agree with PPs re this isn't something to quit over.

Do you have a cleaner/au pair/nanny who might have tidied the passport away? Could be worth asking in the morning if so.