He Showed Up Early Just To Take His Coworker’s Favorite Parking Spot, And It Was No Accident
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When you arrive for work a few minutes late, it can be hard to find a parking spot, but if you’re one of the first people to arrive, you can pick almost any parking spot.
In this story, one person started leaving extra early for work after an annoying coworker kept complaining when he was a minute or two late due to traffic. But leaving early also often means arriving early, and that also means that he often arrives before the annoying coworker.
He decided to intentionally annoy the coworker.
Let’s read all about it.
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.
But there’s always that one annoying coworker.
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.
Despite that coworker, I love my job.
He made sure he wasn’t late.
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.
By parking there, the coworker knows OP arrived first.
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.
But he also wants the coworker to know just how early he arrives.
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.
I get that he’s arriving extra early so the coworker can’t complain, but if the coworker is the only one complaining, I’d ignore him and stop leaving so early.
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Let’s see how Reddit responded.
Flex hours are great.
This is a good idea.
This person would play it up even more.
But this person did some math.
I don’t think it’s worth the extra time. Personally, I wouldn’t adjust my commute unless my boss was upset. A couple of minutes late a couple of times a week due to insane traffic shouldn’t be a big deal.
Annoying the coworker isn’t worth leaving that early, but if OP is happy with it, so be it.
The smallest things can bring the greatest satisfaction.
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