Plenty of things can get under your skin at work. Your boss scheduling last-minute meetings, the copy machine refusing to work at a crucial moment, and your colleagues bragging about their kids that you couldn’t care less about.
Unfortunately, dealing with small annoyances is just par for the course of working any job. But when one employee became extremely fed up with a judgmental coworker, they decided to teach them a lesson in the parking lot. Below, you’ll find the full story that they shared on Reddit, as well as some of the replies invested readers left.
There are few things more frustrating at work than an obnoxious, entitled colleague
So this person decided that a certain coworker of theirs needed to be put in their place
Image credits: Apprehensive-Arm-614
Image credits: Charles Kettor (not the actual photo)
Dealing with toxic colleagues can be a nightmare
According to the author of the original post, they love their job very much, but lately they are occasionally late once or twice a week. Not by much – about five minutes, and not entirely through their own fault, because over the past year, four bridges located directly on the way to work underwent repairs at once. As a result, traffic jams periodically occur, and the Original Poster arrived at work later than necessary.
However, this is life, and no one is immune from force majeure. Yes, but unfortunately, not everyone agrees with this. For example, in the company where the OP worked, there was another employee who constantly complained about coworkers to their superiors for their slightest mistakes. In general, as the author of the post says, this colleague’s behavior was extremely toxic even in everyday communication, and once even played a big role in not having a seasonal employee rehired the following year.
And so, the toxic worker’s new target was the OP and their lateness. The colleague made comments to the author of the post several times, and then even began to harass the head of the department with reminders of this, so finally, the OP’s supervisor reluctantly wrote them up. Needless to say, the author of this story was not at all happy to have such a colleague. And what could be done here? After all, the snitch actually acted in full accordance with corporate rules.
However, an idea came to the Original Poster one day, and it looked absolutely beautiful. The author noticed that the snitching employee regularly arrives at work about ten minutes before the start of the shift and constantly parks their car in a very convenient spot, right in front of the entrance to the building. However, this was not their dedicated spot – just at the moment when they arrived, the perfect spot was always empty. Not for long…
Image credits: Alexander Cruzado Abanto (not the actual photo)
Sometimes, people need to learn lessons the hard way
So, the author of the post decided that they would simply get up an hour or so earlier before work. Yes, it turned out to be quite difficult – but now the OP got to work literally before everyone else, sometimes even forty minutes before the start of the working day. And this, of course, gave a unique opportunity to be the first to choose a spot to park their car. Now, please, guess which place the Original Poster has been constantly choosing?
The colleague was, of course, beside themselves with anger, but they could not do anything – after all, they were actually repaid in their own coin. The Original Poster didn’t violate anything, arrived at work before everyone else, and the fact that now the mean employee had to look for a parking place for a long time – well, no one said that karma is a pleasant thing for everybody!
Most of the people in the comments simply praised the Original Poster for being so inventive. According to commenters, there’s no shame in the OP’s game at all. Someone simply went out of their way to put the author down, folks online suppose, so the OP just didn’t hesitate to give the snitch a dose of their own medicine, which turned out great and fair.
According to most of the commenters, this one is really good and not petty. Just making sure the Original Poster’s doing what the puritan moral guru so kindly escalated, people in the comments claim. “This is awesome! Keep taking that parking spot every damn day!” another commenter states.
For some reason, we are almost sure that you have also encountered this kind of employee in your own work, so please feel free to tell us how it was and how it all ended for both sides of the conflict. Well, in case nothing like this ever happened to you, just please tell us what you think about this particular tale.
Many readers applauded the employee for being so inventive, and they joined in on the conversation
However, some called them out for their behavior
And some shared similar stories of their own
Poll Question
Thanks! Check out the results:
The long reply above about the timeline not making sense has a point. If you're arriving to work five minutes late, then leaving home five minutes (or ten for some cushion) should be adequate, not an hour and a half.
Yeah the math isn’t mathing here. Leaves 90 minutes early and arrives at work 15 minutes early? Maybe the problem was they were showing up an hour late or more and blaming the traffic.
Load More Replies...I agree with the explanatory comment about having to leave hours early or risk being 5 minutes late. With no other explanation by OP to go on, this makes ZERO sense. I have a co-worker who as to leave at a certain time to get through a freeway on ramp before the metering light turns on otherwise it adds 20 minutes to her commute. THAT makes sense. Having to leave hours beforehand or you might be 5 minutes late doesn't, at least without further context. I used to take the light rail to work, which was never consistent and that's something where I had to make sure I left earlier than I needed to be or I'd risk being late (because the trains would backup in the downtown underground part). But if they're just driving...
It makes complete sense. It all depends on the traffic. Some areas bottleneck especially US highways. I use to drive to work in the 90s. If I left at one time, I would be at work 30-45 minutes early. 15 minutes later than that and I would be late by 15-20 minutes. It depends on how many commuters are driving.
The long reply above about the timeline not making sense has a point. If you're arriving to work five minutes late, then leaving home five minutes (or ten for some cushion) should be adequate, not an hour and a half.
Yeah the math isn’t mathing here. Leaves 90 minutes early and arrives at work 15 minutes early? Maybe the problem was they were showing up an hour late or more and blaming the traffic.
Load More Replies...I agree with the explanatory comment about having to leave hours early or risk being 5 minutes late. With no other explanation by OP to go on, this makes ZERO sense. I have a co-worker who as to leave at a certain time to get through a freeway on ramp before the metering light turns on otherwise it adds 20 minutes to her commute. THAT makes sense. Having to leave hours beforehand or you might be 5 minutes late doesn't, at least without further context. I used to take the light rail to work, which was never consistent and that's something where I had to make sure I left earlier than I needed to be or I'd risk being late (because the trains would backup in the downtown underground part). But if they're just driving...
It makes complete sense. It all depends on the traffic. Some areas bottleneck especially US highways. I use to drive to work in the 90s. If I left at one time, I would be at work 30-45 minutes early. 15 minutes later than that and I would be late by 15-20 minutes. It depends on how many commuters are driving.

































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