Imagine working at a busy airport, and two different supervisors order you to do two different things, both claiming they’re the one you should listen to. Who would you listen to?

In this story, one airport employee is in this exact situation, and after switching his job back and forth over and over again throughout his shift, he is finally so fed up that he can’t take it anymore.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

Tales of the Airport Parking Attendant!!

I used to working Parking Control at a busy airport in Australia.

So a little bit of background on how this job works.

I used to work Parking Control at the big airport. It has one domestic and one international part to the airport (about 5 minutes apart via shuttle bus).

I was the guy who told you which taxi was yours, to move on if you spend to long at the drop off or quick pickup zone (Kiss and Ride in Australia), where the Ubers were, covered control in the multi level car parks and more.

There were 3 supervisors on duty.

This particular day I was on the Kiss and Ride section, or as we called it Row D at the domestic airport.

Cars were allowed to pull up and quickly drop off or pickup people. If cars stayed longer then a few minutes I had to move them on (normally to do a lap around the airport, or go to the nearby MacDonald’s to wait for their relatives to call them) so others could pickup their relatives.

Due to the nature of how big the airports are we normally have 3 supervisors/managers on at any one time. One for the domestic, one for the international and one in the control room. Everyone was on radio networks, separate for each airport.

The supervisor on Domestic that night we shall call Duey and the one in the control room we shall call Huey.

But they were short staffed.

I was about 4 hours into my 8 hour shift, patrolling all of Row D when Duey walked up to me and asked me to cover Taxi Rank for a while, some people had been rotated around as we got someone leave early due to being sick.

Hey no problem Duey, so I went to Taxi Rank.

About 20 minutes into Taxi rank I get a call over the radio asking why I wasn’t on Row D from Huey in the control room.

He explained the situation.

I explained that Duey asked me to do Taxi Rank.

Huey said he needs me back on Row D now.

I ask was no one on Row D? To which I find out no, so off I went back to Row D as Huey told me someone would soon arrive to do Taxi.

But then Duey was upset.

Another 20 minutes later on Row D Duey comes back in person and asks what the F am I doing here, why ain’t I doing Taxi?

I explain that Huey asked me to.

Duey told me not to listen to Huey, he is in charge on the ground at Domestic, so I do what hey says.

I hesitated a little, but did as I was told, back to Taxi I went.

He later realized what the real problem was.

Now I look back on things I think at this point Duey’s radio was down, low battery. This happens from time to time and you don’t always notice as you just think things might be quite. I say this as surely Duey heard Huey over the radio order me back to Taxi.

Like clockwork about 30 minutes later Huey was right up butt over the radio asking why I left Row D.

I told him Duey told me to do Taxi.

I was cut off when Huey told me not to listen to what Duey said. He was in charge and if I don’t listen to Huey I would be written up, if I mention another word about Duey or the Taxi rank I would be written up.

Okay, so back to Row D I went…. again.

Once again, Duey was upset.

By now I only had about 1 1/2 hours left on my shift and I was looking forward to going home after this day.

Again Duey found me on Row D and demanded to know why I wouldn’t follow his orders and wasn’t at Taxi Rank. He said Josh (not real name) was there and it was supposed to be me on Taxi, so he came to find me.

I tried to explain what Huey told me, but upon hearing Huey’s name Duey was having none of it. He told me to go to Taxi and not leave it again till the end of my shift or I would be fired.

Figuring a write up isn’t as bad as losing my job I complied with Duey and went back to Taxi… again.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

And yup, you guessed it. Only took Huey another 30 minutes to get on the radio and scream and threaten me for disobeying his orders. I have to get over to Row D right now or I won’t need to worry about a write up.

I thought to myself screw this. Both supervisors are having it out with each other and I’m the punching bag in the middle they are taking their anger out on.

Both Huey and Duey told me not to listen to the other, you got it. So I went to the airport food court and had myself a feed for my last hour of work before heading home.

Yup, I snuck out of work and clocked off without either of those dumb ducks finding me, was not in the mood for that. Turned my phone off as well, as I’m not supposed to listen to orders from the other, right?

The manager was NOT happy.

When I got in the next day the manager was waiting for me with a smug Duey standing next to him. Manager, Duey and I all shuffled into Manager’s office.

The Manager proceeded to ask me what the hell I was thinking using the last hour of my shift to have a dinner break?

I asked him did he see the camera footage of me in the food court?

Manager said yes, and again asked why.

He explained what happened.

I told him both Huey and Duey kept telling me to go to different locations last night, and if I didn’t do what they told me I would be fired. I told the Manager Duey wanted me on Taxi, while Huey wanted me on Row D.

The Manager looked puzzled for a second. He asked me if I was supposed to be at either Taxi or Row D why was I in the food court.

I told him in more detail this time because Huey threatened to fire me if I didn’t ignore Duey, and Duey would have my job if I didn’t ignore Huey. So I did what I was told and ignored them both.

Duey cried foul, saying I was lying.

The manager wanted to know even more.

The Manager asked Duey to step out of his office.

Duey only did so after much protest.

The Manager asked me to tell him the full story, which I did. He then told me to have the rest of the day off, sweet long weekend for me (as it was Friday).

When I got back to work on Tuesday I found both Huey and Duey were no longer employed at the airport.

The best part is that OP didn’t get in trouble.

My friend Josh filled me in that both Huey and Duey chucked a huge tantrum in protest of my allegations.

The Manager telling them that the security footage of me constantly moving locations, and testimony from other employees convinced him I was telling the truth.

Josh was in the break room near the Manager’s office and heard the whole thing go down before seeing Duey storm out of the building, followed by Huey who looked defeated.

The Manager told me next time to call him instead of just taking a dinner break at the food court, but I wasn’t in any trouble.

I’m glad the manager reviewed the security footage and believed OP instead of the supervisors. They deserved to lose their jobs for being so argumentative.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Security cameras for the win!

This person loves the Australian phrasing.

Arrivals is where you pick up people who are arriving, and departures is where you drop off people who are departing.

Here’s some praise for the malicious compliance.

That was a clever way of obeying both supervisors!

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