Morally Handicapped isn't a valid condition
May 1, 2011 5:54 PM   Subscribe

What to do about my boss' parking in a disabled space?

One of the co-owners of my company regularly parks in one of the two clearly-indicated disabled parking spaces This started when he began coming to work late and couldn't find a parking space in front of our half of the building for a period of a year or so, but he now does it nearly daily, and even when there are other spaces available out front. He's not disabled. He's not old (early 50s). He doesn't even have bad knees. There's no justification for it, in terms of his having a special need to park right in front.

However, in the 1 years we've been in that location, I know of only 3 times a disabled space has actually been needed by someone with a legal right to the space, so it's not like he's ordinarily in anyone's way. Unfortunately, one of those three times, not only this boss but the other boss' wife were occupying both of the available spaces, and the disabled individual had to sit and wait for a space to become available.

Should I call the police, and tell parking enforcement they might want to patrol our street? Should I call someone else instead? Should I keep my mouth shut? Talking to this boss about this is not an option. He's capricious, and this could impact my employment. Talking with the other co-owner would just result in a sigh and "You know how he is."
posted by notashroom to Work & Money (47 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Is your company big enough to have an HR person? If yes, talk to him/her. If no, I'd suggest calling parking enforcement. In my city you have to do that when the problem exists -- you can't call in advance and say please check our lot tomorrow. So maybe you could slip outside on a break and do it? Or is there a place you can call without attracting attention? Basically I think it's definitely right to get this idiot busted, but not at the expense of your career.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:05 PM on May 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Call a towing company anonymously. Pretend to be a random concerned citizen. Complain. Watch as justice is meted out in all its glory.

Repeat as necessary.
posted by matlock expressway at 6:05 PM on May 1, 2011 [24 favorites]


Best answer: Is your company big enough to have an HR person? If yes, talk to him/her.

I don't think this is a great idea - there is a significant risk that it will get back to your boss, and then you will be screwed.

Call a towing company anonymously. Pretend to be a random concerned citizen. Complain. Watch as justice is meted out in all its glory.

Much better. No risk to you, and the boss gets fined. But if there is a parking enforcement section of the cops, I would try that rather than a towing co.

If you do this - don't mention it to anyone at work, and make the complaint anonymously. Two men may keep a secret, if one is dead.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:14 PM on May 1, 2011 [18 favorites]


I would definitely encourage you to do something, this is wrong. I would contact the police and anonymously ASK what can be done. Also I would type an anonymous note and put it on his windshield with the most intense explanation of his arrogance and insensitivity.
posted by cerebral at 6:17 PM on May 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Devil's advocate. You really have nothing better to do at the office than worry about this? Your boss sounds like a schmuck, but do you really want to be playing tattletale?
posted by leotrotsky at 6:19 PM on May 1, 2011 [5 favorites]


Re: the towing company. This is obvious, but I'll say it anyway: make sure you call with your cell and not your cubicle/desk phone.
posted by joyeuxamelie at 6:21 PM on May 1, 2011


Yes, by all means, leave Human Resources out of this. They exist to enforce the bosses' rules, not the rules of Basic Courtesy. Besides, most HR people I've ever known were utter stool pigeons and tattlers.

DO call a towing company (as anonymously as possible, of course.) This bastard needs to get his.
posted by BostonTerrier at 6:23 PM on May 1, 2011 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Have you checked to make sure that he actually doesn't have a placard? I think there's about a 99% chance that you're right about this, but there's about a 1% chance that he's got some sort of chronic condition that he doesn't want to tell people about.

Otherwise, I vote you call whoever is in charge of enforcing parking laws. Borrow a friend's cell phone to make the call.
Not sure what is stopping bona fide disabled folks who are looking for a space and are thwarted by your boss from calling the cops, towing, etc. themselves.
Because they may not always have an hour or two to wait around for the parking people to turn up, and because parking in that space is illegal whether there's someone actually there waiting for it or not.
posted by craichead at 6:30 PM on May 1, 2011 [5 favorites]


Best answer: KokuRyu, the point is to make him stop doing it so that in the future, no one who needs the space is inconvenienced by this guy's bad behavior. If he waits for someone who needs the space to call the cops, they're still out a parking space for however long it takes the authorities to arrive. This way, no one's day is potentially ruined except for the inconsiderate dude who deserves it.
posted by decathecting at 6:30 PM on May 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Oops, that should have been "10 years we've been in that location."

We don't have an HR person (we outsource), and the internal person who handles HR-ish stuff (hiring and dismissal paperwork, coordinating with benefits provider, etc.) has no more power than I do over the boss and his solution to most issues is passive-aggressive company-wide emails, anyway. Both the HR-ish guy and one other employee know that I think this is inappropriate, and agree, and have openly contemplated reporting him themselves.

I would definitely report him, if I did so, on my cell phone outdoors or in my car. There is no privacy in my office, as the walls have about a 1" gap from the windows, so conversations carry to the offices on either side of mine.

I don't really relish playing tattletale, but I was pretty appalled that a disabled person had to wait an extended period for a space because both of the designated spaces were being used by able-bodied people, one of whom actually has worked with disabled people for decades and presumably ought to know why doing so could pose problems.
posted by notashroom at 6:31 PM on May 1, 2011


Best answer: Illegal parking in spaces for the disabled is the kind of violation that parking enforcement is supposed to take seriously even if there isn't someone in immediate need of the space. So someone unaffiliated with your company who just happened to be passing by your building could also call and report it.... (But yes, he'd have to be parked there at the time, and do call parking enforcement and not a tow company directly unless that's the process in your area.)

Even if enforcement doesn't want to tow him they might let him know that the fine for parking in that space is likely at least $100.

Also, you don't know how many times someone actually needed those spaces. Maybe they parked elsewhere when the spaces were occupied, came back later, or made the trek to wherever they were going from farther away. Parking enforcement departments get retroactive complaints about illegally occupied disabled spaces all the time.
posted by camyram at 6:31 PM on May 1, 2011


Now this may be a silly question, but are you sure that he does not have a right to park in this space? He may not want to answer questions about a disability that may not be outwardly visible. Can you surreptitiously check his car for a tag?
posted by amicamentis at 6:31 PM on May 1, 2011


Response by poster: I am certain that my boss is healthy. He does not have a placard or a sticker or a tag for disabled parking. He jogs, dances, eats a low-fat, low-carb, largely-organic diet. He's been known to blur or skip right over other ethical lines, too, which is why he's no longer the primary decision-maker at the company.

I don't know for certain how many times those spaces have been needed. Due to the nature and location of our business (we are not a business where customers drop in, nor are nearby businesses, and no one who works in our building currently has a placard or tag), I doubt that it's a frequent occurrence. That doesn't mean it's right for him to occupy the space when someone might need it.

I guess what it comes down to is, he has no legal or moral right to the space, but it's not hurting me directly or anyone else 99.99% of the time, so if I were to report him, would I be doing a good thing or simply being a tattletale?
posted by notashroom at 6:43 PM on May 1, 2011


Have you thought about just asking him why he parks there when there are other spaces available?
posted by Leezie at 6:46 PM on May 1, 2011


Best answer: I don't know, would you call the OP a tattletale if you had a sister with MS? My SO does and this would seriously piss him off and hell yes he would "tattle". Definitely call.

But seriously, if he's an owner, why can't he just mark one of the other spaces as No Parking/Boss Only? What a complete dick.

(Of course this assumes he actually has no right to park there, which you confirmed.)
posted by Glinn at 6:51 PM on May 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Do you have any uppity friends who are disabled (or who have disabled friends/parents themselves whose placarded car they might borrow)? And who could pretend they don't know you and act convincingly?

If I had a disabled tag (and lived near you), I'd be happy to come barging into your place of business to cause a fuss about someone taking "my" parking space. Sure, I'd look like a douche, but I'm happy to play the douche if someone else out there is being a bigger douche.

That's really the only scenario I can see being effective, though. Unhandicapped people who park in handicapped spots are generally the kind of people who would be more inclined to blame "those fucking meter maids" rather than their own dickishness if tagged with a fine or a tow. He'd get pissed off, and maybe stop parking in the spot, but not because he's actually learned anything.
posted by phunniemee at 6:52 PM on May 1, 2011 [4 favorites]


If you don't want to be involved directly, for fear of reprisal, you can try to find a disability advocacy group locally and ask them if they can do anything. "Do anything" will still likely be calling the towtrucks themselves, but it may seem more legit coming from them than from you. Who knows, they might be able to discuss it with him first and warn him that what he's doing is illegal and can get him fined, and maybe he'd stop.
posted by galadriel at 7:01 PM on May 1, 2011


Best answer: 'nthing the let the motherfucker get the ticket
posted by Blasdelb at 7:02 PM on May 1, 2011


Response by poster: But seriously, if he's an owner, why can't he just mark one of the other spaces as No Parking/Boss Only? What a complete dick.
That's the one funny part of this: because the other boss thinks it's an asshole move and won't let him. Come to think of it, the reason he parks there may be passive-aggressive retaliation against the other boss for that, and because other boss' wife has, as I mentioned, worked with special populations for a long time. Unfortunately, she's not approachable for help with this, or really anything.

I do have a couple of friends who have clients who are disabled, and who are in the area, but there's no justification for them being there and needing to use the space other than coming to visit me, which puts me a little too openly in the middle of this.

I feel validated that reporting him isn't overreacting. If the space were needed with any frequency at all, it wouldn't even have been a question, but the fact that it's used so rarely did make me question whether I'd be making it a bigger deal than it was.
posted by notashroom at 7:09 PM on May 1, 2011


Best answer: I have two relatives that are amputees, another one with MS and another relative with a rare chronic lung disease. There's nothing more frustrating for the ones that drive to find handicapped spaces taken by lazy assholes without permits.

My step-father isn't mild-mannered when it comes to abled people parking in handicapped spots and gets confronrational about it. He also has no problem calling authorities.
My uncle, back when he used to be.... well, a dick, went as far as to take a tire iron to a hood and leave a nasty note.

You (or the HR-ish person) may want to mention that things like this can happen to him and that you're "concerned" he may end up with a towed car, tickets, a fight, a visit from the police, etc.

You can tell him that you saw another car being towed from a nearby handicapped spot and may've he'll start parking in a regular spot.

You could just be upfront and tell him that you've seen disabled people waiting for open spots that his lazy ignorant ads decided to park in.

Or call the regular local police and ask for assistance for a parking enforcer or police officer.
posted by KogeLiz at 7:10 PM on May 1, 2011


one thing to note is that (depending on your locale), local police may not have any jurisdiction over the parking lot if it is a private lot. Around here, lots attached to businesses (with more than say, 15 spaces) will typically have a "unauthorized vehicles will be towed" sign with a tow company contact information. If that is the case here, the tow company is going to be better to call than the police since they have a more financial interest in actually towing his car.
posted by tommccabe at 7:12 PM on May 1, 2011


Response by poster: Hmm ... that is a good question. We don't have any signs like that, and the only cars that have been towed from our lot have been towed by the owner. It is a private lot, just shared with a couple of other businesses that, like us, do not have customer stopping by. I imagine parking enforcement (local PD does have such a department) could answer for me whether they have jurisdiction. I thought they always had jurisdiction for disabled parking, because it's a state law in compliance with federal statutes, but IANAL and don't actually know that.
posted by notashroom at 7:17 PM on May 1, 2011


One other approach might be to let him know, in a friendly way, that if the local cops ever saunter on by while he's parked there, he's going to get an outsize parking ticket, private lot or not; but if he thinks there are too many designated handicapped spaces, he might look into the local law and maybe see about having one of the spaces undesignated. There are specific requirements (usually by state I think) about what percentage of spaces must be designated in a given size lot, and how the spots must be distributed by the building entrances. If the boss man can find an error here, he can get his parking space, have the satisfaction of calling out a mistake, and still leave the one spot designated as it should be. Win-win-win, and you'd look like the good guy for instigating it. Whatever happens, he'll get himself a little education about why the spaces are where they are. Might help - who knows?

Other than that, I would leave it alone. He'll get a ticket when someone calls the police about it, and that someone should probably not be you, especially if it's a small lot used by small group of people. The risk to you if it ever got about is too great, and after all, it's just a parking violation -- boorish behavior on his part, and potentially an unjust inconvenience to someone else, but not a life or death matter and not worth job jeopardy for you.
posted by philokalia at 7:25 PM on May 1, 2011


He's going to see through any bullshit like saying you saw someone towed. Also calling the cops to get him towed seems one of passive aggressive. Perhaps you should either cowboy up and ask him about it directly in a nonconfrontational way. Try this "hey bossman, you feeling ok? I noticed you've been parking in the handicapped space recently and I just wanted to make sure everything was alright? Anything I can do to help?"

If he then admits that he's parking for some assholy region you can say, "why don't you just out in a reserved for the boss sign? Arnt you concerned you'll get a ticket?"

Then drop it. Now you've met whatever obligation you have to deal with it.
posted by humanfont at 7:32 PM on May 1, 2011


(I have some sympathy, because at work I must park in an employee lot that would be large eough to hold all employees' cars, but is not, because it has a whole row of disabled-designated spaces that sit empty all day. Soooo frustrating, if you arrive at the wrong time.)
posted by philokalia at 7:35 PM on May 1, 2011


Perhaps you should either cowboy up and ask him about it directly in a nonconfrontational way.
Well, if he's a big enough dick to park in a handicapped space, he's a big enough dick to fire you or make your worklife very uncomfortable for calling him out.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 8:21 PM on May 1, 2011 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Call the local police station on a weekend or after business hours and ask what the protocol is for this situation. Tell them that you occasionally see a the same car without the proper plate/sticker/placard in a handicap parking spot and you suspect that the offender is the person you'd normally report this to (aka the property owner).

Chances are they'll either give you a phone number to call the next time you see the car in that spot or they'll ask for the address and tell the local officers to drive by the property on a semi-regular basis. You might also just get some lip service so don't expect results.

Then you're done. Stop worrying about it. You already know your boss is a jerk.
posted by jaimystery at 8:21 PM on May 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Agreed with jaimystery. The police may have an incentive to heed your tip: budgets are tight and easy parking ticket revenue might be of interest.
posted by Meg_Murry at 8:31 PM on May 1, 2011


I learned a long time ago that when it comes to the office, the best policy is to worry about yourself. In your working life you will encounter reprehensible people on many levels - people that lie, people that flat out steal from the company, people that are way under-qualified for their job, etc. Making it your job to expose these people is never good for you.

Be patient; karma gets everybody.
posted by shew at 8:32 PM on May 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


This isn't HR's problem. It's a legal issue. Call the cops on your cell while on a break. If the guy actually starts to get ticketed a few times for this (clearly this isn't happening now or else he'd learn), he'll hopefully get the hint. Do not involve your coworkers in any way.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:12 PM on May 1, 2011


As a handicapped parker, I VERY MUCH appreciate your concern. I wouldn't want you to compromise your employment, but I think it is very decent of you to care. I would first call 311 (on your break out of the building) and have them connect you to the appropriate city department. If they won't respond to calls on private property, call the property management company.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:32 PM on May 1, 2011 [3 favorites]


Leaving parking available for the disabled is one way of being a decent person. When he parks there, he's behaving badly. If the spaces aren't needed, he can check into having one of them reassigned. It will be a learning experience. If he's actually disabled in some manner, he can appeal a ticket, and get a hangtag.
posted by theora55 at 12:45 AM on May 2, 2011


If you can't get the privacy to call and report him while at work, could you give all the relevant information to a friend beforehand, and email them (not from work email, probably not mentioning parking in your pre-arranged signal) when they should call it in?
posted by JiBB at 1:18 AM on May 2, 2011


Best answer: I thought they always had jurisdiction for disabled parking, because it's a state law in compliance with federal statutes, but IANAL and don't actually know that.

IANAL either, but I'm pretty sure you are correct. Here's Georgia law:
O.C.G.A. 40-6-227 (2010)
40-6-227. Application to both public and private property
The provisions of this part are applicable to both public and private property; and all law enforcement officers of this state and its political subdivisions are expressly authorized to enforce the provisions of this part on private property as well as on public property.
Further, if you look at O.C.G.A. 40-6-228 (2010) Enforcement, you'll see that your local law enforcement can authorize any citizen to enforce this law. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but it makes me happy to think that one of your friends (with or without a disability) can do this. Apparently, it used to say that you must have a disability to be allowed to do this, and in 2010 that law was changed to allow anyone to do it, as long as they are authorized in advance by the local law enforcement agency.
posted by Houstonian at 1:53 AM on May 2, 2011


In California parking in a handicapped space without a placard will run you $400.00+. Don't talk with your boss or anyone else about it just call the authorities and let them pick up an easy $400.00. Oh yeh, able people who park in handicapped spaces are despicable.
posted by rdr at 1:54 AM on May 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


My wife is disabled. She can walk shortish distances, but the lack of available handicapped parking spaces close to a business is enough of an inconvenience that it could easily affect her choices about whether to visit that business at all. It's really disappointing to see suggestions that you do nothing, let somebody else handle it, or let "karma" take care of it. The extra harm that occurs while people twiddle their fingers waiting for karma to show up and do their job for them is considerable and totally unnecessary. Failure to act is consent. Please, call the police.

I'm sympathetic to frustrations felt by those who must park in lots that have many more handicapped spots reserved than are actually necessary. The local college library has a bunch of them, rarely used because the building's entrance opens on a grassy pedestrian quad and so is a couple hundred yards from the lot; the "nearby" parking spaces don't solve the accessibility problem, don't get used much and are largely a waste of prime space. But this is not the sort of situation the O.P. asked about.
posted by jon1270 at 2:20 AM on May 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Not sure what is stopping bona fide disabled folks who are looking for a space and are thwarted by your boss from calling the cops, towing, etc. themselves.

By the time someone who needs a mobility park is there, they're looking at a wait while someone comes over, verifies that, yep, some pig-ignorant dipshit is parked where they shouldn't be, and then calls a tow-truck, which takes its own time getting there, and hey, half an hour later our disabled person has missed their job interview or doctor's appointment or picking up their kid or placing their order or whatever they were doing.

So, yes, poster, it's worth doing.

playing passive-aggressive games under the guise of pretending to care about some possible handicapped parker is juvenile.

Did you miss the bit where you answer the questions in good faith, rather than answering your strawman posters?
posted by rodgerd at 3:33 AM on May 2, 2011 [6 favorites]


Non-disabled people who park in disabled spaces are the lowest. Call a towing company or whoever enforces your parking restrictions. Do it every time this bastard repeats his selfish behaviour, until he gets it.
posted by Decani at 3:46 AM on May 2, 2011


Call the cops. If they won't help call a towing company. If they won't help call a local disabilities rights group. Don't let this drop - it's important.
posted by hazyjane at 4:43 AM on May 2, 2011


The guy jogs and dances, yet is willing to inconvenience people with disabilities in order to avoid walking another, what, 100 feet or so? What an asshole. I'd call the cops on him in a second.
posted by cerebus19 at 5:13 AM on May 2, 2011


Response by poster: if he thinks there are too many designated handicapped spaces, he might look into the local law and maybe see about having one of the spaces undesignated

When we moved into this building, there were no designated spaces. The spaces were re-allocated (to fit disabled plus a shared loading-zone type space between them) across the front of the building, two per suite. I'm fairly confident they wouldn't have allotted more spaces than are required, so I don't think he has a chance of getting them reapportioned.

If he then admits that he's parking for some assholy region you can say, "why don't you just out in a reserved for the boss sign? Arnt you concerned you'll get a ticket?"

Because, as I mentioned, the reason he doesn't have a reserved spot is that the other boss won't let him. I'd be baiting him if I asked him that.

If you don't have the courage to speak to him, then leave it alone. If you don't like you job, quit but playing passive-aggressive games under the guise of pretending to care about some possible handicapped parker is juvenile.

I love my job, and I don't have a problem with this boss, in general. But I also have people I care about who actually need disabled parking, and are frustrated by inconsiderate able-bodied people taking those spaces for convenience.

local law enforcement can authorize any citizen to enforce this law

Back in the 90s I had a client who was quadriplegic who got authorized and got a ticket book. They ended up taking it away from him because he wrote too many tickets. He's actually the one who schooled me on how common a problem this is.
posted by notashroom at 6:21 AM on May 2, 2011


Now this may be a silly question, but are you sure that he does not have a right to park in this space?

If that's the case, he can show the judge or ticketing officer his documentation and won't get in trouble.
posted by TedW at 6:21 AM on May 2, 2011


I don't know how things are in Atlanta but in suburban NJ there's nothing our bored cops would like more than the opportunity to slap ticket that starts at $250 but can be much, MUCH higher depending on the municipality (I've seen signs that suggest $500).

Step outside and the call the cops, or do it during lunch. Or better yet, talk to a friend about doing it for you - just send them a text from your desk when you know he's parked his car. No one will ever know it was you! I suggest you look up the non-emergency number though instead of dialing 911.
posted by exhilaration at 6:46 AM on May 2, 2011 [1 favorite]



if I were to report him, would I be doing a good thing or simply being a tattletale?


As we say in grade school: Tattling gets someone into trouble, Telling gets someone out of trouble.

What he's doing has already been trouble for a disabled person, and will eventually lead to more trouble of various sorts; and it's already troubling you (and probably others) in the office setting on a minor level - bad example, lousy for morale etc. By all means, do something to make it stop for every reason. Can you arrange discreetly for some kind of official warning if you are reluctant to just have him ticketed?

What about arranging to leave an official-looking paper with something like this on it on his (and the other boss' wife's, and, for that matter, every violator's) windshield when it happens?

If it bothers you in particular when he does it consider why you're targeting just him and maybe don't call just to nab him, though he clearly sucks. If it bothers you when anyone else in the lot does it, at any time - because keeping those spaces clear for those who need them is the right thing to do - you should probably call parking enforcement and request more frequent patrols for violations all around.
posted by peagood at 7:39 AM on May 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


O.P., expunge the word "tattletale" from your vocabulary in this scenario. When it's management you're calling out, you're not tattling, you're righting a wrong, and doing your bit to even up the power imbalance.
If one of your co-workers spent the day reading shoe reviews on Zappos and you blew the whistle, that would be tattling, because that person only has as much power as you.
Boston Terrier Ethics™
posted by BostonTerrier at 8:22 AM on May 2, 2011


Call the police and tell them. Your boss is knowingly breaking the law due to laziness. If people who did this were never reported, they would never stop.

He is doing something that is wrong. He knows it is wrong, and continues to do it. The only way he is going to stop is if there is something that encourages him to stop. A large fine will be plenty of encouragement.

I don't understand why anyone who is not disabled would ever park in a disabled spot. There is just no reason other than laziness. Those types of people do not deserve to get away with things like that.
posted by markblasco at 10:06 AM on May 2, 2011


Call the cops, over and over. He owns the place, he can pay for more parking spaces -- or order a sign that saves the third-best spot for himself.

I worked for a few years at a restaurant's take-out area. In front of our giant windows was a bus stop, and then a handicapped spot. When imaptient people yelled at us for their pizza not being ready the very instant they walked in, and we noticed them in the handicapped spot, we sometimes called the cops.

(What we found really apalling is that people would park in the handicapped space after first pulling into the bus stop but then, you know, noticing where they were. The handicapped spot ticket was easily twice the ticket for parkign in the bus stop, as we made sure they learned.)
posted by wenestvedt at 12:42 PM on May 2, 2011


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