When Coworking Is Not Working, Part 2

The most entitled jerk I ever endured was a coworker of mine. He was an older gentleman that worked the night shift with me prior to my assignment as the supervisor of the lower valley, he had days where he was the best guy to be with and then days where he was just mean for no reason.

 I distinctly remember one time I was on patrol, and I noticed that the mountain ridge had reignited (there had been a fire earlier in the day). I radioed him and told him to call 911 and get the local fire department down to the site since I was in the valley and didn’t have reliable phone service.

Coworker: “Oh, no, I don’t want to call 911, you call 911, I’ll just open the gate.”

And then he hangs up on me then won’t pick the phone up again.

It took an additional fifteen minutes to get a fire response to the property because I had to go looking for phone service, but that’s just a teaser, a little taste. Here’s the main story:

One day I end up on the shift preceding my coworker. At 10 pm he rolls in to relieve me, I issue the posting equipment to his partner for the night and then wait for him to come up to my car and get the patrol equipment from me. I am parked in the designated on-camera area where we pass this equipment down in. He is outside of it.

Me: “[Coworker], I have the keys and the phone here for you.”

Coworker: “Well, I’m over here.”

There is a pause.

Me: “Yes… come and get the equipment.”

Coworker: “No, I’m over here.”

Me: “What?”

Other Guard: “…?”

Coworker: “I said I’m over here.”

Me: “Yes… but you have to come and get the… equipment, [Coworker].”

Coworker: “No, I’m over here.”

The other guard and I exchange looks.

Me: “[Coworker], come get your equipment. We have to complete the pass down.”

Coworker: “Well then I guess we can’t complete the pass down.”

Me: “[Coworker] you can either get the equipment or you can leave the property and I’ll work your shift.”

Coworker: “Well, I’m over here.”

Other Guard: “We need to pass down on camera, [Coworker], you know this.”

My coworker didn’t reply. I place the equipment down on my car and unfortunately, it slides off and hits the floor. My coworker goes ballistic, leaping from his vehicle and accusing me of throwing it at him and threatening him.

He then walks off the property and grabs a Honolulu Police Department officer that was chilling in our closed driveway exit lane doing his paperwork (common because we allow them to do this at night) and tells the police officer that I was threatening him and threw the equipment at him.

The officer was literally going to try to arrest me but my car was running and my dashboard camera was recording. Since my windows were down it caught everything.

I told the officer I could show him the footage but once I mentioned it he shook his head and told us that it sounded like an internal problem and left.

My coworker chased after him demanding his name, badge number, supervisor, everything since he didn’t do anything about the situation.

The officer told him that he didn’t care, he was a common visitor to our property and since I was usually on the day shift he knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t do what he was claiming and the fact that I offered camera footage sealed the deal in his mind.

My coworker came back in and I told him to gather his equipment or to leave. He took the equipment and flew into the property almost slamming into the shack and the main gates.

I filed an official complaint with every… single… person above me and included the full dash camera footage.

My coworker only got a write-up.

I found out later that this was to be his revenge for me taking the first set of patrols the night before. I worked with the man for the next two years until he finally got himself eliminated for refusing to stop feeding the stray cats on the property which was causing issues for our tenants as he was leading them into their areas. When property management ordered him to stop, he yelled at them and that was it.

Man tries to get me falsely arrested ON CAMERA and gets a write-up.

He yells at the poor property manager about cat food and gets terminated.

Related:
When Coworking Is Not Working