Working with coworkers you get along with can make work so much more enjoyable, but if you work near other businesses, the way your work day plays out might also be impacted by how well you get along with the employees who work for these businesses.

In today’s story, an employee at a plumbing store runs into an inconsiderate employee who works for the neighboring chemical plant.

He tries to be nice at first, but when being polite doesn’t work, the claws come out.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Still waters run deep, and there’s sharp rocks at the bottom

Far too many years ago, I worked in a retail plumbing store.

There were two of us that worked the counter.

The other guy, Tim, was, generally speaking, a very nice, well mannered guy, always polite to everyone.

He worked opening shift, I worked closing.

This sounds horrible!

Over the back fence of our parking lot was a chemical plant that manufactured fertilizer.

They were the worst neighbors is so many ways, but one of the most obnoxious things they did was to have trucks arrive with various chemicals for their plant, and they’d just dump raw powdered crap into the parking lot, and have their workers (with no protective gear) start shoveling it into bags.

We’d have to literally hose our cars off to be able to see to drive home at night.

I’m amazed I never saw anyone working there with an extra hand growing out of their forehead.

Being polite didn’t matter.

And one day, a bigger than usual truck – a tractor trailer – was parked up next to the gate into our back parking lot, close enough that Tim couldn’t get past it to get to the back door without actually climbing over it.

And the alarm system was configured such that there was only a delay to disarm it before it went off (and called the police) if you came in the back door.

Open the front door, and we get charged by the police department for a false alarm.

So he goes into the office next door and politely – and he was always polite – asks the driver to move it.

The driver’s response was “Go f** yourself.”

OK, well, that’s anatomically unlikely, but – still waters run deep – messing with you is certainly possible.

Tim got the police involved.

So, in climbing over the truck to get in, he notes that it’s parked in a fire lane, and calls the cops.

Who hated this company as much as anyone (for good reasons, but that’s another story).

So they showed up quickly, and told the driver, “There’s a tow truck on the way, You have until it gets here to move your truck.”

The truck was moved, quickly.

Then he got the fire department involved.

But that’s only the beginning of those still waters.

There’s still the sharp rocks at the bottom.

From that day on, every time they unloaded one of their trucks onto the asphalt, he’d call the fire department (who handle hazmat situations).

The first couple of times, their excuse was, “Well, the truck was broken, and this was the only way we had to unload it.”

About the third time, they started writing citations (expensive citations).

It got even worse.

After a few more times, I came back from lunch one day to find a fire truck parked in the alley, and guys in hazmat suits taking core samples out of their parking lot.

They apparently came within a few parts per million of having to pay to have the entire parking lot dug up and hauled off to a toxic waste dump (which, in California, would probably have cost them seven figures – and it’s federal law, so their friends in the city government couldn’t protect them).

But they were never rude to Tim again.

Once we (or, rather, the kid who worked in the detailing shop we shared a building with) taught their stupid Doberman to stay out of our parking lot, they were still annoying, but not nearly as much so.

I’m glad the police and fire departments were on Tim’s side.

It sounds dangerous to work near that fertilizer plant.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is a good point.

This person’s spouse has to deal with hazardous waste.

I’d like to know more about the doberman too.

It was great revenge.

It was literally a toxic work environment.

Civic duty, indeed.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.