I am really sorry you got blindsided. I certainly don't discount the fact that these policies are rarely reviewed by the young employee in the same way they would by the older one, the one with time in at the employer. I can look back and see times when I should have documented an answer to a question with a signature of the person giving the answers. Or even just left more of a paper trail. And on occasion even I have been found dreadfully ignorant of how something was to work when I signed up for it!