After his manager took his phone charger one too many times, one employee had enough — and then figured out a way to make sure it couldn’t be stolen anymore.
In a recent post on Reddit’s “Am I the A——?,” the man, 25, said things with his 45-year-old manager started off fine.
“He always seemed like a pretty nice guy and he’d stop by my office just to chat at least once a day. We had a good relationship,” the man began.
“It all started when, a couple months ago, he stopped in my office to ask if I had a phone charger, because he’d left it at home by accident,” the man explained. “I said ‘Sure, I always keep one plugged in by my desk,’ and I handed it to him. He thanked me, used it, and gave it back the next morning because he’d forgotten to return it. No worries.”
However, the man said his manager started asking to borrow his charger “a couple times a week” and that “he would always forget to give it back.”
“So I’d always have to walk down the hall to his office and ask for it back if I needed it. Not a big deal, but a little annoying,” he continued.
Then things took a turn when the man went on vacation. Much to his surprise, when he came back, his charger was missing.
“The thing is, I lock my office every time I leave. And the only other person with a key is…you guessed it…my manager,” he wrote.
When he went to his manager’s office, there it was “plugged into the wall.”
“He sees me looking at it and just says ‘Hope you don’t mind I borrowed it while you were gone,’ and tosses it back to me,” the man recalled.
“Since then, it’s become a pretty common thing for him to just walk into my office — locked or no — and grab it without asking,” the man added. “This was starting to get on my nerves.”
Not wanting the situation to get even worse, the man said that he came up with a simple, but ultimately effective, plan: he ordered a special device, “which locks your charger in place so it can’t be moved or taken.”
“I got it the next day and it only took me a minute to install it on the outlet in my office,” he added. Now, his charger “is always right where I need it,” but he admitted that “some of my coworkers think I overreacted and should just buy another charger.”
Wanting to get another opinion, he asked if he was actually in the wrong for “stopping my manager from stealing my charger?” According to the majority of commenters, the answer was no.
“Seriously, your manager is such a creep for stealing your charger. It’s not like he’s asking, he’s just taking it! You’re totally justified in getting a lock for it. I mean, what is he, a toddler? He needs to learn to respect people’s stuff!,” wrote one commenter.
“You paid money for your charger, he is your manager…he definitely makes more money than you so he can buy his own charger,” added another.
A third commenter also didn’t mince words, writing “F— your manager and f— your coworkers.”
However, they did go on to share some more constructive advice, writing, “If you think they’ll be responsive, talk to HR about the fact that he intruded into your locked office and took something without permission or notice.”
