Hamming It Up For The Boss

(I’m the OP of this story. I’ve never worked for employers who could be both so generous and so greedy at the same time before that place.

On Good Friday one year — after I’d been hired full-time — the big boss announces that they’ve bought hams for Easter for all the employees, well over 100 people.

Toward the end of the day, my boss tells me to go see the warehouse manager and get my ham.

I head downstairs and find the warehouse manager beaming like Santa Claus.)

Warehouse Manager: “You here for the ham?”

Me: “Yes.”

Warehouse Manager: “Here you go.”

(I take my ham back upstairs. My boss sees me and does a double-take.) 

Boss: “Where’d you get that?”

Me: “From [Warehouse Manager].”

Boss: “[Warehouse Manager] gave that to you? What’d he say?”

Me: “He asked me if I was there for the ham. I said yes and he said, ‘Here ya go.’”

(The boss got a weird look on his face and left. I didn’t know what was going on. Less than ten minutes had passed since I’d talked to him last. I wondered if this was some elaborate prank that had gone wrong. 

Joke was on them, though. Turns out management had bought fancy-dancy honey-baked hams for the employees. But they had bought even fancier-dancier spiral-cut hams for themselves. They forgot to mention this to the warehouse manager. 

He gave me the last one.)