CEO tries to take employee's personal office chair because it's nicer than his, employee keeps it in the back of his car where everyone coming to the office can see it: 'I'm 100% certain they thought I was just going to give in and let him have my chair'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jul 24, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

I do genuinely believe that there is a psychological power to having a good tool, even if the tool's ability to complete the job is more than adequate. The very quality of whatever you're using to complete whatever you're doing makes your brain take to the task that much more earnestly.

As someone with more-than-an obsession with music production, there are many instances where having a high-end instrument or equipment for making music really just becomes unnecessary, especially with how good "in the box" digital computer programs, known as Virtual Studio Technologies (VSTs), are now. Now, I love the tactical feel of analog outboard gear as much as the next producer, and it's really hard to admit, but it is just easier to get a clean recording with a VST that sounds almost imperceptibly the same as the real deal. Certainly, by the time the audio has been recorded, mixed, and mastered, 99.5% of listeners are never going to be able to tell the difference.

This is an endless debate for producers and musicians, with staunch supporters on either side. And despite being the source of endless debate for guitarists who like to endlessly debate about what about an electric guitar determines a guitar's sound or "tone," it's pretty well accepted that a decent enough electric guitar can make the same sounds as a top-of-the-line expensive one.

What can't be recreated, though, is the feel and effortlessness of playing a top-end instrument. That spine-chilling knowledge that you hold in your hands something that is itself a work of art. The same goes for synthesizers, whose unique quirks (read: limitations) bear the fruit if streamlined decision making and creativity. With this tactile feel is born inspiration that most won't find with a mouse and keyboard.

I'd argue that the same thing applies to any tool for any job, right down to the pen and paper you have on your desk, and to the chair that you're sitting in while you're working. If you're doing serious work, there's something about a space that feels and looks serious, and tools for a job that match the part that really sets the mood. Being comfortably and ergonomically positioned will further encourage the focus and productivity of the 40+ hours a week you spend sitting there.

I mean, can you imagine walking into your attorney's office and they're all decked out with RGB LED gaming hardware and a see-through LED computer case that screams, "I watch Linus Tech Tips on my breaks." On the one hand, you might be impressed that your attorney is doing their work with some impressive computing power, but you might also be wondering how much work they're actually getting done when they're spending all of their time in the office pubstomping on CS:GO.

The same thing goes for creative contractors you might hire. Run of the mill IT-issued refurbished PC? Boring. $4000 MacBook Pro that is mainly just used for word processors? Now you're talking. Besides, it's the same logical reasoning I used when, as a "serious" writer in university, I bought myself a fountain pen and leather-bound notebook. The effect worked, and in that period of my life, I got a lot of writing done, and successfully convinced a girl that I was thoughtful and "deep." I'm not sure if she's figured it out yet, but the novel I was working on remains, to this day, unfinished.

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  • Anyways, this is a long-winded intro to the fact that that's why, when this worker decided to buy his own nice office chair to work in, comfort aside, you can really see the point. And companies are notoriously cheap about the equipment they provide, especially to low-level workers. The problem is that the presence of this magnificent chair offended the ego of the CEO of his company, who, like a dragon seeking to grow his horde, simply had to have it for himself. He would almost cartoonishly stake claim over this obelisk of his own desires, leading to an embarrassing confrontation with the worker.

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    Cheezburger Image 10533707264
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    "The CEO didn't think it was appropriate that I had a nicer chair than him"

    A while back my wife and I were buying our house after a few years of rental. There was a delay in the new house being ready, so we moved in with my mother for a few weeks. During that time I stashed some stuff at work, including bringing in my chair, a very nice Herman Miller Aeron I had gotten second hand. The office chairs were old. standard/serviceable but not exactly nice.
    via KingOfMooks
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    After a few days. I noticed that my chair would be in the conference room every morning. No problem, I just wheeled it back to my desk. I was working 8 to 4 to avoid traffic so was usually in first
    via KingOfMooks
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    The CEO (of about 120 people) would usually not arrive until about noon, and take later meetings when most of the staff were away. After a few days the chair kept ending up at his desk. (Open plan thankfully, so I just took it back every morning. i wasnt foolish enough to go into the CEOs office..). He'd shot me a dirty look every morning but that was it.
    via KingOfMooks
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    After a few more days of this back and forward, the CEOs assistant (who was a lovely person who I felt immense pity for) approached me and told me that the CEO didn't think it was appropriate that I had a nicer chair than him. People would think that my desk belonged to the CEO and it was stressing her out having to basically fight for it every day on his behalf.
    via KingOfMooks
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    I told her I understood completely, and would stop fighting over it. I took it out of the office that lunch time, and reclaimed a normal office chair. The next day she came over and asked where the chair was. I said with an incredibly straight face that I thought since it wasnt appropriate I just took it to my car. She had a super stunned look, but just kind of ran off.
    via KingOfMooks
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    Since I was almost always first in I always got parking near the building, pretty much everyone got to walk past my car on the way into the office and see my chair in the boot for a few more weeks, however given his cowardly nature I never got approached about it again
    via KingOfMooks
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    To this day, I'm 100% certain they thought I was just going to give in and let him have my chair. Instead I got the joy of telling everyone the honest truth about why my chair was in my car for weeks TL:DR: CEO tried to steal my personal chair I had brought to office, citing that it wasn't right I had a better one than him. I agreed, but rather than give him my chair I kept it in the car outside the office for weeks and told everyone why.
    via KingOfMooks
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    Edit 3: to answer the most common questions. I asked HR before bringing my stuff in. They knew, my team lead knew, everyone who said "hey, what's with the chair" knew. Did the CEO actually know? I did not directly inform the CEO, because I never talked to him more than 3 times when I worked there, so it would have been weird. Yes, I could have labelled my stuff, but it didn't seem necessary for ~8 weeks.
    via KingOfMooks
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    Hattix If the guy had any sense, he'd have just done what my old IT Director did. "Hey, why's your chair so much better than everyone else's?" "I brought it in from home, it's mine." "Cool. Good choice." Next day he had a £980 office chair delivered.
    via KingOfMooks
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    desertrock62 About 20 years ago, I was a civilian IT guy working for the US military in Baghdad. Same as OP, the office furniture was serviceable, but not fancy by any means. I bought my own office chair through the mail and assembled it for myself in my office.
    via KingOfMooks
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    More than once, certain colonels determined I was not authorized to be issued such a nice chair and would liberate it to their workspace. I solved the issue once and for all by securing a copy of my receipt underneath with packing tape. I loudly asked the latest entitled officer if his name was on the receipt underneath. Never happened again.
    via KingOfMooks
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    Mackowitz At my first job, we had crappy chairs to pretty nice chairs, ranging from like 1 to 5. But there was a weird office hierarchy where people at a certain level were not allowed to have a nicer chair than their level. Even when a couple more "senior chairs" were not being used, an entry level person was not allowed to use them.
    via KingOfMooks
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    A few years later we hired an HR manager who explained ergonomics related injuries and the liability the company was exposing itself to by not providing everyone with high quality, supportive chairs. After that, we all got the same, much better chairs.
    via KingOfMooks
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    Cocoa AlmondsRock That's hilarious! Here's a thought: The CEO should BUY ONE.
    via KingOfMooks
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    SparklesIB My favorite part of this part is that you kept the chair in your car, which acted as a lovely "in your face" gesture.
    via KingOfMooks
  • 17
    IIIIIII... I buy my own really nice (looking) notebooks and pens that I use for work. Head of HR said I shouldn't be using them because they look expensive and it wasn't a good look in the office. Like Anyway, one day the CEO asked me where I got them and I gave him the link. Now he has them too.
    via KingOfMooks

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