Imagine working for a boss who refuses to be bothered with any request he doesn’t want to deal with. Would you keep relaying the messages left for him if they were urgent, or would you stop giving him the messages if you knew he wasn’t going to listen?

In this story, a customer service associate is in this situation when the company CFO refuses to listen to a complaint from another business owner who is so upset that he literally makes the same complaint every single day.

Eventually, the business owner talks to the landlord and threatens to call a tow truck, but the CFO still won’t even let the customer service associate finish explaining the situation before refusing to listen.

Keep reading for the whole story.

Asking Someone Else to Ignore it Won’t Make It Go Away.

On summer break during high school, I had a job working the front counter of a computer service store.

The computer part is irrelevant, but as a front-counter-monkey ahem customer service associate, part of my job is essentially acting as a secretary for the bigwigs who have an office at this location–taking phone calls, dealing with walk-ins, etc.

I have zero issues with this responsibility, but it does tend to bug me when these tasks are clearly for personal, not company, business.

Here’s the deal with parking.

This particular store was located at the end of one of the many buildings in a strip mall, so there is a parking lot in front for customers, and then an access road running right next to our unit to the employee and delivery lot in the back.

It was corporate policy that no employee–even the owner–was to park in the customer lot.

Most of us, being reasonable people, parked in one of the well-marked spots in the back lot.

There were three bosses.

This company had three “managers” who essentially served as CEO, COO, and CFO.

The CEO and CFO were also majority owners. Mostly, however, they were just “the bosses” and generally really cool people to work for.

It was a very casual work environment and we had a lot of fun without a lot of bureaucracy or micromanagement.

Here’s the deal with the CFO…

CFO was a minor exception: while pretty easy going and a decent boss, he always had a bit of an attitude that, because he was a primary investor in the business, he knew better and was more important than anyone.

Sometimes, like in financial situations, this was absolutely true, but the attitude carried over into areas he was clearly not an expert in, like how to repair computers.

But that’s not really important either–what is important is that CFO had a collection of Corvettes that he absolutely doted on. He took great pride in driving a different one each day and showing it off.

The CFO decided to change where he parked his car.

At some point, the CFO decides that he is going to start parking on the access road between parking lots instead of in the back like the rest of us. I’m not sure why, but I assume it was from some combination of “I’m too important to walk that far back to my office” and “no one can see my Corvette back there”.

This is annoying as we now need to drive completely around to the other side of the building to get to the back lot.

As employees of CFO, us underlings gripe about it but generally take it without complaint.

The rest of the businesses in the strip mall, however, do not.

Here’s how the conversation with one business owner went.

One business owner (“Owner” from here out) takes this particularly hard. He walks in and asks to speak to “whoever drives that damned Corvette”:

Owner: I need to talk to whoever drives that damned Corvette.

Me: Sure, let me see if he’s available. Can I ask what this is about?

Owner: He needs to move his car, he’s blocking back lot access.

The CFO didn’t want to deal with it.

Me: Just one moment, let me check.

I proceed into the back of the store where CFO’s office is.

Me: CFO, Owner is out front asking that you move your car. He’d like a word with you.

CFO: sighs Tell him I’m busy.

OP made up an excuse.

Back in the front of the store

Me: I apologize, CFO is in a meeting at the moment. I can give him your message, however. Anything else you’d like me to add?

Owner: No, just get him to move his car.

Me: I can’t promise anything, but I will give him this message.

The owner is getting more and more frustrated.

This happens almost verbatim every single day for the next two weeks. Enough that Owner stops asking to see CFO, and just asks that I give him the message–and I do, every single day.

CFO is getting equally frustrated, but he can’t really get mad at the messenger and he doesn’t want to talk to Owner, so the three of us reach an unhappy stalemate.

The next Monday, Owner again walks in, but instead of the normal message, he has an ultimatum.

Owner: Will you give CFO another message?

This time it’s more serious.

Me: Absolutely, same one?

Owner: No; tell him I talked to the landlord and that is not a designated parking space. If he doesn’t move the car in the next hour, I will have it towed as per my lease with the property management.

Me: Oh! I’ll alert him immediately. Thanks for the heads up.

(Really, because I’m surprised at this point he didn’t just have him towed without warning).

But the CFO refused to listen.

However, CFO has apparently found his breaking point. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong day for his demand.

Me: CFO, Owner stopped by again and he said to tell you that…

CFO: Stop. I don’t want to hear it again. If he comes in again just tell him I’m in a meeting and take his message, but I don’t want to hear it.

Me: You want me to always tell him you’re in a meeting and never give you his messages?

CFO: Yes, thank god.

Me: …Okay

OP did as directed.

Owner (being a much nicer person than I) stops by once more before his deadline is up.

As instructed, I inform him that CFO is in a meeting, but I gave him the message.

I give him a look that clearly indicates that I’ve done everything in my power and the only way this is going to end is with him carrying out his threat.

Owner nods knowingly, and heads back out.

It took awhile for the CFO to notice what happened.

Within 15 minutes, I see the tow truck arrive and leave with the CFO’s very, very precious Corvette.

Another four hours pass before it’s quitting time, and CFO comes back out of his office to head home. He returns quickly in an agitated state.

CFO: My car is gone! Someone stole my car! Did you see anything?

Me: Yes. Your car wasn’t stolen, it was towed.

OP explained what happened.

CFO: What! Why didn’t you tell me?

Me: I tried to tell you earlier that Owner is now threatening to tow you, but you ignored me and told me not to give you any more of his messages.

CFO: Well, you should have told me about this!

Me: I’m sorry, but I don’t feel comfortable deciding which of your requests to ignore and which ones to follow, so I’m going to follow all of them.

The CFO made a call.

I smiled inwardly as I started to pack up my gear. I can hear CFO on the phone leaving a message for Owner asking what tow company he used.

I did happen to notice that he gave Owner the store number as a callback instead of a personal number (or his office’s direct line).

Just as I’m about to walk out the door, the store general line rings, so I answer it as I’m supposed to.

Owner: I’m returning a call for CFO about the name of a tow company.

Again, OP followed orders.

Me: Oh hi, Owner! Unfortunately, I have to tell you that CFO is in a meeting at the moment.

Owner: [Laughing] Well, leaving a message doesn’t seem to work well, so I guess I’ll just wait for him to call me back.

Me: No problem; have a nice day.

Owner: Oh, I will. I will.

Here’s how it worked out.

CFO ended up getting the name of the tow company off one of the many, many posted “no parking” signs around the complex (and directly alongside where his car was parked), but he never parked in that lane again.

CFO was mad, but I’m pretty sure COO had a talk with him about using employees to duck responsibilities because I never saw any fallout from the event.

Owner and I shared a knowing smile every time we saw each other after that.

That was awesome. I love the malicious compliance here so much.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who is feeling guilty about having an unauthorized car towed from her assigned spot.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

It really was hilarious!

Yes, indeed!

Another person loves what OP said to the CFO.

Another person mentions a parking lot in Dallas.

I love that the corvette ended up getting towed. Honestly, the CFO deserved consequences. That’s the only way he was ever going to change his behavior. The other business owner was way too patient. Eventually, enough is enough and you just have to take action even if you don’t really want to.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store employee who refused to play “guess the price” without seeing the item in question.