Rubber Stamp

In the early days of the EPA Region 9 Emergency Response Section, OSC’s tended to be a very effective but a rather rowdy lot and were a frequent cause of complaints from other Region 9 Staff and Managers. Terry was frequently required to counsel the offending OSC and to apologize to the aggrieved staff member or manager.  

One day when Terry was out of the office, probably on travel, the OSC’s met to discuss ways to reduce the stress that our behavior was causing him.  We decided that there were two possible solutions,

1.   We could clean up our act.

2.   We could make it easier for Terry to apologize. 

We opted for the second choice. That afternoon a few of us went to a local stationary store and ordered a rubber stamp. The stamp looked something like this:

Terry used the stamp sparingly but for some of the aggrieved recipients it soon became a badge of honor and a collector’s item. At other times, when Terry returned from leave or travel, the first thing he would ask staff was “do I need to get out the rubber stamp?”