[House O' Pain]

At my workplace there are 3 parking space in various parts of the parking lot that have been designated by a posted sign as, Motorcycle Only Parking. Over the last few weeks it has been raining heavy here so motorcycles have not been using the spots, but one car had been parking in the motorcycle spot daily.

The last two days here the rain had let up, but I so happen to be working on my bike, so I didn't ride it in, however yesterday this car was back in the same cycle parking spot, preventing anyone who rode a bike in from parking there. Since I saw him back in, I walked over and as he exited his car I pointed to the Motorcycle Parking Only sign and the conversation went like this:

Me: "This is for motorcycle parking only......see the sign?"
He said, "Yeah, but there's nobody in it"
Me: "If I drive my truck home for lunch and want to come back on my motorcycle, (I live close to work) I will not be able to park here with you in the spot."
He replied, "You think this is your personal space. I see your bike in here all the time, so you think you have rights to it even when you're not riding your bike?"
Me: [admittedly getting angry and raising my voice] "What part of 'Motorcycle ONLY' don't you get?" "The company posts a rule and you're expected to obey it, not make up some personal reasoning as to why it's OK for you to ignore the rules"
He responded, "I don't get it anyway, if a motorcycle is taking up an entire spot, what's the difference between that spot an any other?"
Me: Do you ignore Handicap parking only too? We have a designated employee of the month parking spot— is it OK for me to park there if it's empty?"
Him: Grinning and shaking his head like I was being silly, "Well, that's not the same....."

AT this point, the guy was walking away from his car, (obviously not going to move it) and seemed too dumb to try and explain the purpose of a designated motorcycle spots, or he was purposely being obtuse to save face and justify his actions.

I said, "I'm not going to argue with you any more since you seem determined to do whatever the hell you want to do and f**K everybody else (yeah, I dropped an f-bomb at work). I've tried to give you the chance to do the right thing, but since you've choose to blow me off, I'm letting you know I"m going to escalate this to management.

The guy just shrugged and said, "Sorry you feel that way" like I had some kind of problem about not allowing the guy to park where he wanted to.

I went right to my desk and sent the guys manager and our facility director an e-mail asking them if they could convince him not to park in the Motorcycle Only spot. I received no reply, so I'll update on whatever happens.

Side note: I will not be surprised if the guy lodges a complaint about me for speaking to him in a discourteous manner, making me the focus of 'bad' behavior and prompting my manager and maybe HR to warn me. In this modern age, we aren't allowed to be outraged about anything or to raise our voice in any social situation.

Reminds me of this:

 

[brettp]

Tell me it wasn't motorcycle parking only AND angled!

 

[House O' Pain]

Tell me it wasn't motorcycle parking only AND angled!

No, not angled. I worked for a place that had motorcycle only parking that was mandatory, in that you weren't allowed to park your bike anywhere else on the lot. This I don't agree with for a couple of reasons, but mostly because there are a lot of idiot bikers who block you in (e.g. park in front if you) or so close to your bike that when you straighten it up off the kickstand your bike is practically hitting theirs.

This is off the topic, but apparently idiot bikers who park directly in front of you do so because when they did it there was space for you to pull out. Problem is, a bike then parks directly beside you so close you now are blocked in both ways. Then you have the guys who park at the front part of the space, blocking the space behind them if another bike parks beside them at the front.

 

[brettp]

I don't know anything about the guy in this story other than what you've shared. But if how you describe his replies are accurate, I know all I need to. That mentality also votes for boys to go into girls locker rooms.

 

[House O' Pain]

I don't know anything about the guy in this story other than what you've shared. But if how you describe his replies are accurate, I know all I need to. That mentality also votes for boys to go into girls locker rooms.

I doubt it. The guy is a staunch Republican with a "God Bless America" sticker on his truck. He got in an argument with me once, due to his Christian beliefs and his inability to shut up about them at work within my atheist hearing. The guy also rides motorcycles, but not to work, just to show how our bias could be miles away from the truth when we make a judgement about somebody.

Lastly, for the record, I voted for gender neutral bathrooms here in California...but we digress....

 

[drtrider]

I be right in hr and if not i would see the president of company. I would love to be in your spot.
I

 

[brettp]

You're right, I got him wrong. I hate his attitude, anyway. He ought to be a better Republican.

 

[Tar Snake]

I would have (1) got a photo of his tag and vechicle and sign together (2) approach managment with the evidence (3) if he is mentally unstable,bang ,bang your shot (4) don't be surprised if your bike gets a wack job done to it one day. It's ok to pick your battles , I would have not confronted him....let managment earn their money like you do.

 

[brettp]

I would have (1) got a photo of his tag and vechicle and sign together (2) approach managment with the evidence (3) if he is mentally unstable,bang ,bang your shot (4) don't be surprised if your bike gets a wack job done to it one day. It's ok to pick your battles , I would have not confronted him....let managment earn their money like you do.

Have to disagree, respectfully. People like that will keep doing it, maybe more, until or unless they are confronted by others who tell them what they're doing is unacceptable.

 

[Merry Prankster]

Dude sounds like he loves to pull your chain HOP. I see your side, and even would have done the same thing.
Yeah, HR may be up your azz in the end.
GL.

 

[free1954]

OH MY GOD! someone took your parking space?
don't they know how wonderful you are?
i guess you really do know the meaning of snow flake.

in life, sometimes you're the Pigeon and sometimes you're the statue.

 

[JAT]

Get a grease pencil and write on his windshield, "Motorcycle Only Parking ", real fun to get off. Of course, this should have been done before you confronted him and make sure there's no security cameras.

 

[Merry Prankster]

I am seeing something like this go down HOP....

 

[fastspek]

I think I would let this pass and choose my payback moment later.

 

[Yaesu]

Good for you HOP.

 

[Harkon]

We do live in a very selfish and self centered time. Instead of acknowledging the error, because the guy is clearly wrong to park his vehicle there, people tend to double down on their lack of consideration and self entitlement. More often than not, these people tend to express anger towards those that call it out, like somehow one's attempt to set it right is a far greater affront to them than their self entitlement that everyone else must accommodate is to anyone else. These people have failed "how to get along in a society 101".

So what is to be done? Prepare yourself with the passive, aggressive sarcasm that hits home the most. The harder it hits, the angrier they get, without holding the higher ground. Witnesses to this is always beneficial as it's best to have the support of an audience. Will a lesson be learned? Likely not, but that self entotles asshole is exposed as such to more than just the one person. In that case, he'll likely never park there again. @Hop doesn't strike me as the guy who would be the slightest bit upset with any residual tension there, especially if held right about his position. So, no downside!

 

[House O' Pain]

I would have (1) got a photo of his tag and vechicle and sign together (2) approach managment with the evidence (3) if he is mentally unstable,bang ,bang your shot (4) don't be surprised if your bike gets a wack job done to it one day. It's ok to pick your battles , I would have not confronted him....let managment earn their money like you do.

You're right about non-confrontation, but it started out as me simply pointing out that there was a sign posted. Who would have thought the guy would start presenting outrageous arguments for why it was OK for him to park there. I've always had a hard time hiding my true feelings with dealing with fools and a-holes.

In the workplace we're expected to put up with all manner of stupidity, incompetence, and disregard for others, all keeping a calm demeaner. I once yelled at a guy who drove through safety cones into an oversized forklift load in progress, jeopardizing his safety and others. He complained to management, and I was reprimanded for yelling, even though that was needed to get the guy to hear me in his car with the window down.

Back when our HR person actually did something, I once got a manager (my former boss) in trouble with HR, by reporting him for unsafe speed through our parking lot (he drove scary fast through it in a big, raised truck). From then on every time I passed him in the hallways he would loudly say, "here comes trouble' to whomever he was with, and I'm sure they would hear his skewed 'version' of how I was the problem, not him, getting co-workers to see me in a bad light.

Our HR has a history of either not responding, or making any complaint your problem. Another example was a co-worker playing his music obnoxiously loud such that I couldn't concentrate at my desk when trying to draft important email messages, etc. I was asked if I had considered noise cancelling head phones? I confronted the guy and that solved the problem, but HR can be useless unless its making you out to be the problem due to lack of tolerance.

 

[House O' Pain]

OH MY GOD! someone took your parking space?
don't they know how wonderful you are?
i guess you really do know the meaning of snow flake.

in life, sometimes you're the Pigeon and sometimes you're the statue.

If you think this was about my parking space, you're as clueless as the guy who parked there.

 

[House O' Pain]

I think I would let this pass and choose my payback moment later.

Payback for what? He didn't do me any personal harm. It isn't my personal parking spot. My goal was to get the guy to obey the parking rule so me and other bikers can park in a spot a little safer to park in than the rest of the parking spots (the spot is isolated from other car parking spaces).

 

[Mr. Incredible]

at my office we have 3 disabled persons, I happen to be one of them, we have 3 disabled spots.

our warehouse forklift jockeys come in at 5am and decided the disabled spots are theirs for the taking. When confronted they have always said "well no one was parked there". well no $hit, the rest of the company comes in at 8 or 9, not 5.

for me it is about the respect for the disabled persons. while I am in fairly good shape and don't really need the spot, I do have a replacement hip and screws holding my pelvis together, there are days that walking can be problematic.

I got tired of it, it's not about being "my spot". i will park on the street if need.

Reported to Management, they put out a memo telling people that if they do not have the proper disabled plates or plaque and parked there, anyone within the company has their permission to call the police and have the vehicle cited or towed.

fixed the problem for about 2 weeks, then started again, so every time I see one of these jacktards in the DP spot I call the police. 4 vehicles towed in 3 weeks,

hasn't been to much of an issue for about 4 months.