Being able to park close to where you work is ideal, but sometimes there simply aren’t enough parking spots for everyone.

In today’s story, an employee has to park at a nearby parking garage instead of the parking garage in the office building, that is until a nice security guard steps in.

What’s really interesting is when a visitor arrives who doesn’t understand the parking protocol.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

No, that is not a company spot, that is my spot…

When I started at my new company, we had used all assigned parking spots in the adjacent parking garage, and I was given a spot in a building a couple of blocks away.

When I got in early one morning and had to be let in by security as the building was not yet unlocked, I talked with the security guard briefly, and this started a bit of a friendship.

After a week or so he asked why I always came through the front door, instead of through the parking garage and I explained my situation.

This security guard sounds really nice.

He ended up giving me one of the extra spots that was assigned to the security staff.

I was only allowed to park there Monday-Thursday as they needed the spot for cleaning crews on Friday.

This spot is only about 20 feet from the pedestrian bridge to the building, so it is a pretty nice set-up.

This spot is actually better than any of the assigned spots at the company where this employee works.

We also have 2 company visitor spots in the same adjacent lot, however they are on the top floor (along with the rest of the spots assigned to our company), exposed to the sun, and require walking down three flights to get to the pedestrian bridge.

We have had a Senior Engineer visiting from a different office for the last two weeks, parking in the visitor’s spot.

On Tuesday we went to our cars together, and he saw where I was parked.

The visitor didn’t understand.

Well when I got to work yesterday, he was already in my parking spot.

I headed up to one of the visitor spots, and let him know that he needed to move his vehicle out of my spot, or his car might be towed (we are right downtown and have many people who park in this garage without permission).

He told me that it was fine, don’t worry about it, it was a company parking spot, and that could just stay in the visitor’s spot.

OP really tried to explain the situation.

I told him that I really did not think that was a good idea, and tried to explain, but he brushed me off.

I followed up with an email letting him know that the spot was not leased by our company, but that I just had permission to park there until a spot opened in the garage.

I parked in my assigned spot in the other parking garage (boss man does not like non-visitors parking in the visitor’s spot so I was not about to stay there) and didn’t worry about it, just like I was told.

Good for the security guard!

Well come lunch time, Senior Engineer comes storming back into the office.

Apparently, Security Guard saw that the vehicle parked in my spot was not my Civic, but rather a Tesla, and decided to have the vehicle towed.

Not exactly sure what came of this, and I bet I will find out later today, but I am happy that I sent the CYA email as Senior Engineer outranks me by a considerable margin, and I do not need someone thinking that I left him high and dry out of spite.

The security guard was just following the rules.

I should note that while we have spots assigned to our company, each vehicle gets assigned its own spot.

Occasionally we will have people park in our assigned spots, and Security will call our office to confirm if this is someone we are allowing to park there, or if this is someone parking improperly.

So if it had been a company spot, Senior Engineer’s assumption would have been correct.

We got no such call, and Security Guard does not have my personal number.

I love the security guard in this story!

I also agree with her that sending the email was a good idea.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This reader thinks there are two types of engineers.

Another reader doesn’t like engineers.

He brought this on himself.

Seriously, the security guard deserves some kind of thank you present.

It’s better to follow directions than make assumptions.

Especially when you’re visiting.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.