Companies often have very different rules for executives than they do for regular employees.

When that is the case, sometimes it comes back to bite them, and that is exactly what happened in this story.

This employee had to use the executive parking area to meet with a customer, but when she went to get her car, all sorts of trouble started.

Check it out.

Can’t get my car back from a company car park? Enjoy loads of taxi fare charges! (+ extra petty revenge from my boss!)

This particular company I worked for had a staff entrance at the side of the building, where the staff used to enter/exit, and there was a “works” car park there too.

There was also a very posh entrance at the front of the building, which was reserved for the directors and any customers that visited.

It was known that if any staff tried to use the front entrance (we called it the “exec” entrance), they’d normally get told off for overstepping their rank.

Yes, some companies are still this backwards even in the mid-2010s.

Anyway, this starts on one particular morning, where a customer I’d been working with was visiting our building.

My boss’s boss not only gave me free reign to come and go through the main entrance to facilitate our customer (e.g. people arriving at different times, taking them for lunch, doing a tour of the building etc), but he also authorized a parking space for me in the posh exec car park. This was signed off by one of the directors.

No issues, we had a great day and the customer was very impressed.

This sounds like a very annoying setup.

All cars parked in the exec car park had their keys kept by reception.

I assume because mine was a Nissan key and not the posh BMWs and Audis etc, they weren’t too bothered on keeping an eye on it.

Feeling like I’d done a good day’s work, I went back to get my car from the posh part of the building.

Living in England, the rain had picked up, so I was looking forward to getting out of the bad weather.

Being selfish, I had my hair done quite nicely and it’d be nice to come back home, looking presentable.

What I didn’t know, was that after 5pm, the posh entrance was closed.

There’s a secure gate to stop vehicles going in/out, and unfortunately my car was parked in the secure part.

To make things worse, I’d left my car keys with the receptionist – who’d already finished for the day.

This was when I learned that we worked hard so the directors didn’t have to.

I would be so upset.

This takes place before taxi apps were commonplace, so I was stood in the rain for about half an hour waiting for an overpriced taxi from the nearby railway station, getting more and more frustrated that I couldn’t go home in my own car.

So, I ended up sat in a taxi, very annoyed, hair and makeup ruined, staring at a bill for £50 just to get home – let alone the trip back to work the next day, which cost slightly more due to rush hour traffic.

When I went to grab my car keys the next day, I walked through the exec entrance.

Within seconds, I was asked why I was entering through this door – I said “morning all, you’ve got my keys, my car’s parked there – look, it’s the blue car in space #6” – and I expected just to get given my keys and told to go away.

However, what I was told was no, sorry, this is an executive entrance, please exit the building and use the staff entrance round the corner.

I politely said – “look, my car’s parked just outside. You have my keys in that box by your arm that you’re pointing with – can you just give me my keys so I can leave and take my car with me?”

Some people take power way to seriously.

Well, this didn’t happen.

The person behind the desk was so proud that they had some power over others, that I was just told “only senior employees and customers are permitted here. P

lease use the side door. You are not authorized to use this entrance.

Please do not try and enter again otherwise you will be written up.”

I wasn’t rude but I realized being written up wouldn’t be of any favor to me.

I also got annoyed that I’d put the effort in earlier, so I wouldn’t fight what could be construed as a disciplinary threat.

The last thing I asked was that I had this written in a formal email, which the angry secretary was more than happy to do so, including phrases like “gross misconduct” and “a serious lack of respect”.

Always print this type of thing out.

Not only did I save this email to every folder in my mailbox, I printed it a few times and stored it in various places around where I worked – just so I could get a hold of it if needed.

Shortly after this, I told my boss that the senior team wouldn’t let me get my car back and threatened to write me up for asking so.

He was 100% behind me.

He said if the company’s holding your car, get taxis everywhere.

Your commute, going to get lunch, your gym session in the evening, etc.

This is going to get very expensive.

So that’s what I did. I left my car in the executive car park and just took cabs everywhere, basically my personal life.

I took lunch out of the office every day.

I went grocery shopping as I normally do (twice a week, plus one or two times for quick visits when I forgot something).

Going to the gym.

Visiting my parents.

Nights out with my bf.

I purposely left my car in that car park as long as I could, until I got asked about it.

All the time, racking up taxi fares.

I had it in writing from my manager and since neither of us were “exec” level, we didn’t want to push back.

Rather, I just wanted to see how far I could push it.

After 7 weeks(!), one of the directors had noticed my car looking very sorry for itself in their car park.

At least one customer had asked why there was an abandoned car there, with bird poo all over it and a flat tire.

We have car park passes so it only took a few seconds to ask which employee car pass #12345 belonged to – and when I was asked, I forwarded the email saying I wasn’t allowed to get my car back.

I then asked if I could get half an hour with the Legal director as I wasn’t sure if this was illegal, preventing an employee from retrieving their own car?

So, she waited 7 weeks without saying anything else and then wants to sue? Hmm.

As soon as I mentioned the Legal director, I was asked to come straight in via the posh entrance and speak to a few of the directors who’d somehow made the time for me.

Literally, I sent my email at 11am and by the time I’d got back from lunch (in a taxi), at 1pm, I had an email requesting a chat ASAP.

They were quite nervously sat around a table, and as soon as I mentioned the potential legal issue of withholding an employee’s personal possessions without due reason, the directors fell over themselves to apologize and say it was a miscommunication and I was free to take my car back. I asked why it took 7 weeks to get to this point, and I’d wanted my car back as soon as I could because, well, it’s my car!

The directors had no answer and were surprisingly very quiet.

I find it hard to believe they would be ok paying this bill when she just let it go on for that long.

Well, that’s where it gets fun.

I presented a bill for about £3,000 of taxi fares over 7 weeks, and said that this needed paying.

Furthermore, as my car now had a flat battery and looked awful, the company could also pay for recovery to my car dealership, pay for car detailing because of the bird poo all over it, and a full dealership service and health-check, plus 2 months finance that I was paying on the car that they had in their possession.

I also told them that I would no longer entertain any customers going forward, and pulled out the printout that I was supposed to be able to park there and entertain customers as necessary, signed by one of the directors in that very room.

The atmosphere was not only tense enough that you could cut it with a butter knife, but I felt a resounding feeling of deflation from the directors, who’d realized they’d messed up by asking employees to do their work for them (e.g. showing customers around) – and then doubling down by kicking those employees out of their little corner before the job was complete.

Wow, I would assume that security guard got fired.

All-in-all, I wouldn’t be surprised if it cost the company over £6,000 just because I wasn’t allowed to go and get my car back from the managers’ parking because a secretary didn’t let me.

I also heard on the grapevine that as I declined to carry out any customer hospitality visits, this particular customer wasn’t impressed that their previous friendly, knowledgeable folks were no longer available.

My boss, who’d supported me all the way, had stood behind me and said that his team would no longer carry out any customer visits either.

This is turning out to be a very costly mistake.

Our customers weren’t amused when the directors took them to golf and posh dinners but made no commitments or shared any information on the work we’d been doing with them.

They didn’t renew their 7-figure contract; I’m not sure if I was just told that to make me feel better or not, but either way, smiles all round for me.

My little car is still going strong, I’m in a much better place, and whenever I drive past that company’s buildings I give them a salute.

I’ll let you guess how many fingers I use.

It is a wonder that a company like this could stay open at all, what a mess!

Check out what the commenters had to say about it.

This person says secretaries at Dr’s offices are the worst.

I’ve heard lots of stories like this from the military.

This person says power goes to people’s heads.

Yeah, the company has lots of problems.

I’ve never heard of a secretary who can do this.

This power tripping secretary cost the company thousands.

Everyone was surprised but her.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.