Seven years later I still think about the incident, and still don't know why she did it (though I do have some theories in that regard). I was quite junior in the organisation, working in the IT department. She was the boss. One day in May, her PA approached me to say that Mary-Chloe's phone was not working properly. She couldn't make outside calls to the UK. 'No problem, leave it with me," I said, in my usual obliging, collegiate way. I resolved to send an email to the external consultants to whom we'd outsourced phone matters. I cc'd Mary-Chloe on the email to keep her in the loop and let her know I was taking action to fix her problem. In the email I referred to her as my 'colleague'. Big mistake! Minutes after I'd pressed send, I heard the door of her office opening with something of a thud. She was quite a short lady, but what she lacked in stature she made up for in shrillness of voice. I could hear her feet stomping along the corridor...