The Secrets of the Server Room and the Trouble with Keys

Every single day since the dawn of time here, the backup tape for the network server is changed daily. This illustrious job has been handed down from staff member to staff member until finally settling on me. Every day might seem excessive to you, but we are actually an extremely productive office, outputting a lot every day (not evidenced by out attention to this blog), and, well, as you know by now things get deleted, misplaced, destroyed, etc. Our server has completely crashed before and we were saved by these daily tapes.

Now, the server is located in a back closet, "The Server Room," which also houses the security camera tapes. This room remains locked at all times. I must use a key each day to access The Server Room and change the daily tape. I had done so for at least a year, diligently and responsibly, with no conflict or cause for concern. Then one random day, I go to open the door and find my key no longer works. Odd... When I went to ask our old co-director about this, he simply said "I had the lock changed. That's how it has to be." Uhhh. Huh? Did I abuse my access to The Server Room power somehow (like the time I took too many liberties adjusting our thermostat-- servicing 3 people, myself included-- that it was suddenly locked as well? Clearly, I am drunk with power). I could not get out of him why he no longer trusted me with access to that room. I mean, if he tought I would even care enough to say tamper with the security tapes or the server, he could certainly have easily verified that this never occurred. Special K would now hold the key to The Server Room and that was that. Ok, so I tell the directors that as key-holder, Special K needed to change the tapes each day. They wren't too keen on her doing it. Or anyone doing it for that matter. And I had to make a grand case for why this should continue to be done (um, remember that time the server crashed? And we would have lost EVERYTHING? Remember last week when Special K deleted a folder? And I got that back?) It was then decided by the higher powers that the switching out of a tape would simply be too much for Special K to handle (and to be fair, they were kinda right), so I would continue to do it each day, and each and every day get the key from Special K and return it to her. We still do this routine to this day, and not a day goes by that I do not lament how retarded this is. Procuring The Server Room key also allows me at least one irritating exchange with Special K each day. Now, we do this same song and dance-- and have done so-- without variation for the past several years. And I'd say about 85% of the time Special K is completely caught off guard when I come to get the key at approximately the same time around the end of each work day. She appears to have no clue why I am there, so I ask her for the key. I ASK. Every day. She mumbles, grumbles, and looks in her desk (it's never there). It might be inside a heavily rubber-banded wallet of hers, or it may be in another bag of hers in the library. If the key in the library, she will rummage for it for at least 5-7 minutes. If I am lucky, she will produce for me the correct GREEN-coded key! Success! Fairly often I am handed a differently-colored, differently-shaped incorrect key, or a medium-sized binder clip.