'AITA for possibly getting a employee fired at my apartment building?'
"AITA for possibly getting a employee fired at my apartment building?"
Path-Majestic
Before I get into the main story, a little context. I work in a job where you have wear business professional clothing every day, even on days when you work from home (virtual business meetings and the like).
However, I don’t want to walk my dog in my work clothes so I have an outfit that I recycle to go outside (think a 3XL t-shirt and shorts) before I shower to go to bed.
So there’s my work outfit, my “dog walking” outfit, and my PJs that I change into after the dog walk and a shower. I will usually recycle that outfit for a week because it’s not really getting dirty as I only wear it for 30 min a day.
Going back to the point, I was at home on Friday when I got a knock on the door and I wasn’t expecting anyone. When I checked the peephole I could see that it was the maintenance guy so I opened up. He said that he was here to fix my shower and/or washing machine.
At this point I was confused because I never put in a request that anything was broken and he said that it came from “Lou” at the front desk (not the real name) who was working at that moment.
I thanked him for coming by so quickly, but sent him away and went downstairs to speak to Lou. Another piece of the story is that it was around the time when leasing management (their bosses) are leaving for the day and are milling around the lobby.
When I got downstairs, I asked him why he had sent maintenance up to my room and he said that I had been wearing the same clothes for the past week when he saw me and thought that either my shower or my washer was broken and thought that he would “take the initiative”.
I explained the circumstances to him and asked him to please check with me next time. He seemed really embarrassed and said maybe I shouldn’t rewear the same clothes and that he was “just doing his job.”
This morning there was someone from leasing management at the front during Lou’s shift and I asked where he was. Leasing said that “his shifts are being filled by other employees right now.” I can’t shake the feeling that I’m to blame for him possibly getting fired and that I’m an a**#ole.
Here were the top rated comments from readers:
ABeerAndABook
NTA. Lou acted inappropriately and this incident was most likely the final straw in a long series of events. Not only was Lou being nosy and making intrusive assumptions, but the management company had to pay for the maintenance guy to just show up and turn around. Sadly Lou did this to himself and nothing here is OP's fault.
Vegetable-Air-9432
It doesn't seem like you even complained about this turkey (even though you should have, like, alot). How could you possibly be the ah here?
What he did was a huge invasion of your privacy. That was NOT his job. Most places require 24hr notice before any repairs happen. And that doesn't even BEGIN to address how inappropriate it is for him to log and judge your outside clothes. Ick. Completely inappropriate. NTA.
Independent_Spare578
NTA. "Lou" is a d%$k, and got caught. He then tried to shame you for his bad behavior, in front of hi bosses. "Lou" brought this on himself. "Lou" is appropriate for a looser of a human that acts that way, and gets defensive when shown for what he is.
If he's not there this week, I doubt you were the first, or only, complaint. He's likely overstepped bounds repeatedly.
BlobulousPesto829
NTA. Not your fault this happened. I have trouble imagining a service worker doing this, it seems beyond the pale. However, sometimes people really are that clueless, especially when new at a job. But I do much the same with rotating clothes and what not. Nobody’s business but mine. And, uh, yours now too I guess.
CaptainSlowly23
NTA. What if you simply had multiple of the same t-shirts and shorts?
Living-Assumption272
NTA. You didn’t mention reporting him, so I don’t know how this could possibly be your fault. Unless maintenance said something, but again, not your fault.
Backgrounding-Cat
NTA you had a legitimate question and had no reason to expect answer to be something that would reveal how bad Lou was at their job. Besides that Lou got fired because he was bad at his job.