(I’m at the food court and I need a power outlet. Five of the six places are occupied with people eating. The sixth contains a magazine, a drink cup, and an (obvious open) purse on top of the magazine. No one is nearby. I figure the owner has foolishly stepped away to get something from one of the eateries and will return promptly. Or, she’s wandered off and left her things lying around and will notice the total lack of purse and come running at any moment. I choose to eat lunch close to the ‘unoccupied’ table, figuring that when she returned to claim her items I could move to the table. 30 minutes pass, my lunch is finished, and no one has returned for the items or even looked at them twice. I carefully pick up the magazine (not touching the purse) and drink, and move them to a table about 4 feet away. I then plug in my computer and begin to work. 20 minutes later a woman comes storming up to me.)
Her: “DID YOU MOVE MY STUFF?!”
Me: “Yes. I waited about 30 minutes for someone to claim it, then moved it because I needed the outlet.”
Her: “WHO THE F*** SAID YOU COULD MOVE MY STUFF?!”
Me: “No one. Considering how long you left your things unattended, I’m surprised that no one took them.”
(I put my earbud back in and turn back to my computer. I am aware of her continued ranting, but as I’ve been pretty obvious about replacing the ear bud, I ignore her. Eventually she wanders off. 10 minutes later, an older man comes over. I remove the earbud. He’s being reasonably polite. I respond in kind.)
Him: “Did you move my employee’s items?”
Me: “Yes. They had been left unattended for at least 30 minutes before I moved them. I needed the outlet, so I moved them to the nearest table.”
Him: “You shouldn’t touch other people’s things.”
Me: “I actually sat at that table -” *pointing* “- for 30 minutes, waiting for someone to collect the abandoned items before I moved them. Your employee is lucky that someone didn’t come along and take her things.”
Him: “She says she was watching her stuff all the time.”
Me: “That seems unlikely, since no one was around for 30 minutes before I moved them, and she didn’t approach me until 20 minutes after I moved them.”
Him: “She also didn’t like how you spoke to her.”
Me: “I regret that.”
Him: *nonplussed* “She says you just moved her stuff and was rude.”
Me: *done with this conversation now* “She’s welcome to her version of what happened.”
(I put the earbud back in. A few minutes later, I glanced up and saw the woman ranting at her boss. With the earbuds in, I opted to ignore them. Kudos to the boss for going to bat for the employee. I rarely find a boss willing to stand up for an employee. Too bad this boss chose the wrong woman to stand up for.)
