Imagine having a long commute to work, and traffic is unpredictable. Would you leave super early to make sure you’re never late, or would you leave around the time you’d usually need to leave and realize you’re probably going to be a little late once in awhile?

In this story, one employee was in this situation and chose the second approach. Then a coworker complained, so they decided to try the first approach with a side of revenge.

Keep reading for all the details.

I took a coworker’s parking spot after they complained I was arriving late.

My commute to work got progressively longer and unpredictable over the past year due to 4 bridge closures occurring within months or weeks of each other.

No date has been given for their reopening, so for the time being, short of heading off for work an hour or two ahead of time, you risk arriving a minute to 5 minutes late once or twice a week.

Everyone has been impacted by the traffic in one way or another, which I mention because there was no way someone could feign ignorance.

One coworker was a troublemaker.

One coworker, though, didn’t care about legitimate reasons for my being slightly late for work every now and then, and complained so adamantly behind my back about it that my immediate supervisor reluctantly wrote me up.

I knew it had to be that one coworker because they would get noticeably irritated whenever traffic conditions were brought up. They would leave the room, loudly interrupt with unimportant questions or comments, or roll their eyes.

They’re also known for complaining about every little thing, at one point having played a big role in not having a seasonal employee rehired the following year.

OP started leaving for work earlier.

Despite that coworker, I love my job.

So I started leaving for work an hour an a half earlier than before. My arrival time is now anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes before my shift starts.

And that’s when I noticed the annoying coworker always arrives about 10 minutes early and always has a very convenient street parking space available.

I used to park on a different side of our building before traffic got bad, and had never noticed that they’d unofficially claimed that public parking spot as theirs.

OP decided to do something petty to get even.

Most of the time, I’m at work early enough to get my pick of any spot in our always crowded employee parking lot, but no parking spot other than theirs makes up for my having to wake up at 530 in the morning.

That coworker can’t complain about my being late now. They know better than anyone that I’m at work way before I have to.

I’ve mentioned my arrival time to other coworkers with them in earshot, so they know I’m parking there out of spite. I’ve also gone as far as parking right in the middle of a space large enough to acomodate their car and mine.

I have no idea if they’ve complained to our supervisor about it or not, but I really want them to have been stupid enough to complain about my taking their public parking spot away.

If parking in the coworker’s favorite parking spot makes OP feel better, then so be it. The real question is if this even bothers the coworker or if the coworker simply found a new favorite parking spot.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Flex hours are great when you have a bad commute.

This is a good suggestion.

One person would be even more petty.

Another person would play it a little bit differently.

Parking spot revenge can be very satisfying.

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.