Unfiltered Story #98703

(I’m a concierge at a condominium and I work night shifts. One coworker is the evening shift, so I take over from him when he’s working. The other is swing shift, so I take over from him when he’s on and the evening guy is off. Our security desk has little name plaques that you can set out so that people coming to the desk know which concierge is on duty. When we do shift change-over, we sometimes help each other by putting away our name plaque and taking out and placing our coworker’s name plaque in full view at the desk. My evening shift coworker [Evening Guy], is a funny guy and loves to play silly jokes. Working a weekend shift, I get off work at 11 am. I tell him I’ll put his sign out as he gets settled. I prop it upside down, it now reads as [ʎn⅁ ƃuıuǝʌƎ]. I then go to my locker and get out of uniform.

When I came back, I asked [Evening Guy] if he knew who [ʎn⅁ ƃuıuǝʌƎ] was. He was greatly confused so I showed him his sign upside down and said his name again in the same backwards fashion as I’d just said. (Like saying “Samoht” for “Thomas” being backwards and upside down.) He laughed heartily and told me that he knew this [ʎn⅁ ƃuıuǝʌƎ] and thought he was a terrible person and needed to be fired right away. He hated that guy. We had a good chuckle about it and I left, and he no doubt put his sign back the right way up.

Cut to the following weekend, when [Evening Guy] had his normally-scheduled days off. That’s when the swing shift guy [Swing Guy] was scheduled to work instead as part of his regular swing shift.

My shift was over, [Swing Guy] had taken over, and I offered to put his sign out for him. Like I’d done with [Evening Guy], I balanced [Swing Guy]’s sign so his name appeared upside down, and then I went to my locker to get out of uniform. When I came back, [Swing Guy] looked /very annoyed/.

Me: What’s wrong, [Swing Guy]? I see you flipped your sign back around right way up.

Swing Guy (SG): So it was /you/!

Me: Huh?

SG: /You/ flipped my sign upside down!

Me: Yeah. I thought it was funny.

SG: Well it /was not/!

Me: *scratching my head* What do you mean?

SG: While you were gone, a resident came to the desk needing my help and as she came over, she said, “Oh [Swing Guy], your sign is upside down. I’ll fix it for you.” and she flipped it back around. Now she probably thinks I don’t know which way is up and which way is down!

Me: *looking puzzled at the anger* I promise you none of the residents would think that. They know we can be silly sometimes.

SG: No! I bet she thinks I’m /stupid/ now and don’t know up from down!

Me: Look, I’m sorry if I upset you, but I /promise you/ she won’t think you’re /stupid/. Who was it?

SG: Mrs. [resident] from [condo unit number].

ME: Now [Swing Guy], I know Mrs. [resident]. She’s not that sort of lady. She’s very nice. I’m sure…

SG: *cuts me off* I don’t care! Don’t ever do that again! They all think I’m /stupid/ now and don’t know up from down!

Me: Uhhh, okay. Sorry [Swing Guy].

SG: You should be.

I grabbed my stuff from behind the desk and started to leave, and waited until he was so distracted, he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. When he wasn’t looking, I flipped his sign upside down again and placed it silently so he wouldn’t realize it had been done again, and fled the building for my bus stop. XD

(For closure, he didn’t say a word about out when we saw each other next so maybe he forgot about it or maybe he tried to report me and they told him /he’s/ the stupid one, so he dropped it. I don’t know. Good times. XD)