The warning letter appeared months after the incident it described.

The thing supposedly warranting a written warning in the fall didn’t generate a written warning until the spring. But the letter is dated. Filed. Official.

It contains quotes. Specific words, in quotation marks, attributed to a conversation that two people remember differently. One of those people’s version is in the file. The other’s isn’t.

A document built after the fact to justify a decision already made — that’s not documentation. That’s production design. Someone built a set piece for a trial that might never happen, and filed it in a folder labeled “performance.”

The timeline is always the tell. If the document and the event are months apart, ask who needed the document and when they needed it.