Most workplace disputes start small. Maybe an urgent email was sent too late in the evening, or a meeting was held that could have definitely been an email. This one started with a chair. An $1,800 Herman Miller Aeron, to be exact.
The new hire had barely made it through onboarding before realizing the office chairs felt like medieval torture devices. So on day three, he brought in his own. On day four, it vanished. Not misplaced, not accidentally swapped, but it had vanished straight into another salesperson's cubicle. When he asked for it back… let's just say it didn't go well.
Management didn't help either. The company's owner insisted that chairs, including one that an employee paid nearly two grand for, were first-come, first-served. If he wanted it, he needed to get to work earlier.
So things escalated. The next morning, when the same coworker was sitting comfortably in his Aeron again, he called the police. Receipt and serial number in hand, he proved ownership. The coworker begrudgingly admitted everything.
When officers asked if he wanted to press charges, his boss threatened to fire him if he said yes. He pressed them anyway. He was fired. The chair thief was arrested.
Now the coworker may lose his security license and his entire career. And the man who bought the chair? He walked out with it — finally sitting exactly where it belonged.
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