“...based upon a document that no one has actually seen...”
Or, why does everyone assume that the document is Holy Writ? I have had my supervisors ask me, “Did you document such and such?” My response has always been that I can tell the truth about the incident now, or lie in writing just after it happened.
As a supervisor before I retired, it was SOP to document all ‘talks’ I had with the people that worked under me. All documentation included date and time as well as any witnesses present. Anything that was extremely important was always witnessed. Just because a person writes something down doesn’t make it true without witnesses or recordings.
I have seen it that way but there seems to be something sacred about documents. Dumb to me though they do have more consistent memory than I do.