Go Park In Your Own Driveway

The company where I work has a tiny carpark which is first-come, first-served, apart from one space which is a combined visitors and disabled bay. I’ve never really been that worked up about it; you either park in the carpark or on the quiet street outside.

The disabled bay is normally empty when I arrive, but it’s occasionally in use when I get my lunch. Again, I’ve never really thought about it. We rarely have visitors, and while no one is visibly disabled, it could be hidden.

We get an email, a note on the notice board, and a message relayed to us by our leaders.

Notice: “We have important visitors coming. Do not use the disabled bay unless you need to.”

That seems pretty clear. Then, a week after that:

Notice: “We have important visitors coming. Please contact [Manager] immediately if you need to use the disabled bay. Special considerations will be made.”

The messages keep coming, but a car still occasionally parks in the bay. As it gets closer to the big visit, the warnings keep coming, more and more urgent. The day before, we get one final message. 

Notice: “Do not park in the space next week. No one has informed anyone about a medical need. The cameras have been pointed at the space. This will be considered gross misconduct to disobey direct and reasonable instructions.”

That seemed way overboard, but whatever. Just don’t park in the space, I get it. The next morning, I was running a little late, and lo and behold, the same beat-up car that had parked there before was in the space.

This should be interesting. 

I got to my desk to find my manager in his office with the head of security. He looked angry. 

I didn’t have to wait very long to find out the perpetrator.

[Coworker], who sits across from me, who attended all the meetings, who joined in with all the conversations about the mystery parker, was pulled into the office.

It started quiet, voices were raised, and then [Coworker] left the office with a bang, swearing at our boss. He never comes back, so he is the only person I’ve ever seen fired for their parking.

The visitor turned out to be one of the owners, a guy in his late sixties who wanted to tour the site — something about renovations to the building.

One of the guys who was friends with [Coworker] told us later that [Coworker] was loving “sticking it to management.” He wanted them to fire him so he could claim discrimination. However, [Coworker] had made no effort to notify the company of any need, so he wouldn’t get a penny.