Sometimes, the consequences you warn someone about show up at the most inconvenient possible time.

What would you do if a coworker refused a simple system that could prevent costly mistakes, and then went out of their way to block help from everyone else?

Would you step in when they needed you? Or would you let them deal with the problem they created?

In the following story, a property manager finds himself in this situation and refuses to help.

Here’s what happened next.

Hope you enjoyed your drive!

I work for a property management company. My job includes time-sensitive sign-offs in the NYC Department of Buildings portal.

We usually have adequate time to sign off, and most of the time it’s just a matter of logging in and clicking a box or two, but missing a sign-off can mean big fines.

Dan, an older manager brought out of retirement, handled compliance. He was not tech-savvy. After he missed a sign-off and the company was fined, we met with our boss to figure out how to stop it from happening again.

The original policy remained in place.

I suggested a shared company login, with alerts going to our company’s administrative assistant, who would see the emails and hound us to get things signed.

Dan refused. He blamed liability and “unauthorized sign-offs,” but the real issue was that he waited until the last minute and did not want anyone seeing the reminder emails filling his inbox.

The owner kept things the same but warned Dan that the next mistake would cost him his bonus.

Apparently, Dan wasn’t answering messages.

Soon after, staff told me Dan was trying to dig up dirt on me. I sent a company-wide email calling him out for that and stating I would no longer help him with sign-offs.

Months later, while Dan was on vacation, an engineer called me to ask whether Dan still worked with us. He had been trying to reach him for over two weeks with no response. A sign-off was due the next day.

I told the engineer that Dan was on vacation, but said I would text him.

Dan had a long drive ahead of him.

The next morning, Dan called me in a panic and asked if I could handle it for him. I told him I would not be in the office and reminded him that, because of his security concerns, it would not be appropriate for me to sign in on his behalf.

I told him he could do it from his phone and hung up.

Dan was not able to do that. Instead, he drove six hours round-trip during his vacation to sit at his desk and check one box.

Yikes! Dan should really learn how to use tech.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think about all this.

According to this comment, shared logins are not the way to go.

That sounds like sarcasm.

For this person, Dan messed up.

Here’s someone who thinks he should warn others about Dan.

Dan deserved it!

Next time, he’ll be more open to creating a policy that works for everyone.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.