Today I met David, the boss of my boss, as I came in the door. He said, “That file you sent me is wrong.”

“Yes,” I said, “I re-sent the correction.”

“It’s still wrong,” he replied.

When I first presented the file there were wrong numbers in it, but I had fixed them. Then I re-sent the slide without copying the right numbers into it, calling it a corrected version. Then after that I realized I hadn’t put the corrected numbers in, so I re-sent it. I figured he had looked at the uncorrected correction, so I re-sent him the corrected correction. I went to me desk and opened the file. The numbers that had been wrong were right. I found the e-mail I had sent and opened the attached files. I sent it to him again, figuring he hadn’t noticed it. The numbers were right there, too. Later in the day he asked about the file and I said I had sent him the correction. “Really?” David said. “I must be confused.” He opened the file and pointed to the totals. “I don’t understand those numbers.”

“Yeah.. those are still wrong,” I said. “I guess I only fixed the other wrong ones.”

David sighed. “That’s your second strike,” he said. He was stressed over the upcoming meeting with the corporate bosses and was understandably not happy about double-proofing my work.

“Third, by my count,” I said. (Go ahead, go back through and count the revisions.)

“You’re shirt is wrinkled. That’s your third strike,” David said.

Was he joking?