Just Trying To Make It
Sometimes it seems like life is just waiting for you to mess up so that it can hit you with everything its got. When one minor mistake blows up in your face, it can feel like the end of the world, especially when you know you have no one to blame but yourself.
Doug was a former college student who just wanted to make a little money and keep his nose clean after a few run-ins with the law got him kicked out of school. Little did he know the mayhem that would ensue after he accepted a job at a boat factory as a deck rigger.
He was 19 years old at the time and had just gone through a pretty rough freshmen year. His trouble with the law got him sentenced to a year in a halfway house. He went straight from his “cozy college lifestyle” to a modest blue-collar living.
After 10 months on the job, Doug had worked his way up to a supervisor position and was making some pretty good money. At this point, his main goal was to prepare himself for reentering college while building his resume to cover any gaps his recent troubles may have caused. It was early May and he only had two weeks left until his release from the halfway house. He’d earned car privileges, so he was allowed to drive himself to work.
A few months prior, Doug’s boss had asked him if he could give his coworker, Larry, a ride to work every day in exchange for gas money. Young and desperate for funds, he immediately accepted. Larry constantly had issues getting him the money on time, and owed Doug a decent chunk of change. Doug mostly considered him an inconvenience, but soon Larry would land Doug in a world of trouble.
Not A Big Deal
One fateful Monday morning around 6 am, Doug left his “little wooden shack,” signed out with his rehabilitation director, and went to pick up Larry for work. As always, Larry was running late and smelled like he’d been smoking something illegal. On the way to the factory, he asked Doug if he could stop at the gas station so he could pick up some smokes.
Doug thought to himself, “Sure, why not. That way I can get my own pack too.”
When they arrived, Doug got out while Larry stayed inside the car. He claimed that he had “left his wallet at home,” despite the fact that HE was the one who’d requested the stop in the first place.
So Doug went into the gas station, bought a pack of Pall Malls and an energy drink, then headed back to the car. As soon as Doug opened his pack, Larry asked if he could bum one, as he always did. Even though he’d asked for one 100 times before and Doug had always said yes, he was fed up with Larry’s freeloading ways, so he told him no. Larry proceeded to get angry and started talking trash.
Doug said, “Look, I’ve given you a million smokes, this one time won’t hurt you.”
When they finally get to the factory after a very awkward car ride, Doug got out while Larry claimed he’s going to stay behind and chill for a bit. When Doug demanded that Larry get out because he needed to lock up, Larry stormed out in a huff, leaving the door open and his McDonald’s trash inside, as he often did.
Doug had had enough of Larry’s selfish, thoughtless, totally ungrateful attitude, so he decided to tell him off. He had no idea that this decision would set off a series of events that no one could predict.
He Totally Blindsided Doug, Then Played THAT Card
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Getting more and more irritated with Larry’s behavior, Doug confronted him. “Bro, if you’re going to be a jerk, that’s one thing, but at least take your trash with you.”
Larry went back to the car, got his trash, threw it on the ground, slammed the door, and walked off. Wanting just a few minutes of solace before starting his shfit, Doug put on his headphones and lit a smoke.
He was leaning against his car, facing the driver’s door with his back to the factory. Out of the blue, he heard a faint yell through the Nas album he was listening to, so he turned around.
As soon as Doug turned, all he could see was Larry’s fist headed straight for him. Larry had already sucker punched him before Doug even knew what was going on. He didn’t consider himself to be a fighter, but Doug squared up to defend himself.
Larry was throwing one punch after another, but that first sucker punch was the only clean hit, and Doug got him in the nose once, so he felt confident in saying he held his own. Though he felt good about getting a few licks in, those hits would end up costing him.
The scuffle didn’t last long because two of their co-workers came over and broke it up. They’d seen the whole thing go down and told Doug that if he didn’t go report the incident immediately, they would tell their boss. At that time, Doug was out on bond and in the custody of the program he was in, so he was on very, very thin ice. One wrong step could see him going back to the halfway house or, worse, prison.
He was skeptical about reporting the incident because he could get in legal trouble, plus he didn’t want to seem like a snitch, but he knew things would only get worse unless he owned up to what happened.
As Doug and his other two coworkers were walking in, Larry kept trying to keep the fight going, though he was being held back by his brother.
He was yelling things like, “YOU RACIST CRACKA! TREATIN’ ME LIKE A CHARITY CASE, I’LL BEAT YOU UP!” Doug was shocked that Larry would go there, but that wouldn’t be the last shocking thing to happen this day.
Wrong Answer
As Doug went to clock in, he could feel his eye starting to swell from the initial blow. It was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to hide it, so he headed to the plant manager’s office. He explained the assault and his boss immediately radioed for one of the managers to go find Larry and bring him to the office.
While they were waiting, Doug’s boss asked him a question that almost ruined his life: “Did you hit him back?”
Doug replied, full of youthful swagger and no doubt still humming on adrenaline from the fight, “Of course I hit him back, he was attacking me for no reason.”
His manager pulled up the security footage, but unfortunately, the fight was out of frame so there was no visual proof that Larry was the aggressor and Doug was only his hapless victim. Doug’s very bad day was going to get a lot worse.
Those Witnesses Won’t Work
Larry was eventually found and brought into the office as well. While they were both being questioned, Larry claimed that Doug was being racist, so he lost his temper. In disbelief of the blatant lie, Doug asked if his two coworkers who broke up the fight could be used as witnesses, considering they were longtime employees and pretty ethical people.
Doug’s boss denied the request, saying that they “couldn’t go off other employees’ words in a situation as severe as this one.” Doug and Larry were both terminated immediately. Doug still figured he could argue the right to self-defense, and that punching back was an attempt to inhibit Larry’s ability to harm him further.
And since he was sucker punched, he would have had decreased senses and was probably too disjointed to find a path to retreat, not to mention once knocked off your equilibrium it can be impossible to outrun an aggressor, right?
Get Out
Doug only had 2 weeks left in his halfway house after a nearly year-long sentence, and the two most common reasons for getting kicked out were failed pee tests and being fired from a job.
He was hoping that since he was an outstanding employee, his boss would try to help him. He’d always been understanding before, and had even given Doug a double raise at his evaluation.
His response to Doug’s plea for mercy? “You have 10 minutes to grab your stuff and leave the property or we’re calling the law.”
For his last 2 weeks in the halfway house, Doug had to lie about having a job and disappear from the compound for 8 hours a day, which is very illegal if you’re out on bond. He also had to tell everyone that he got his black eye from a flying rubber mallet. All this trouble to complete probation and keep his life together just because he didn’t let someone bum a smoke.
Just Cut Your Losses
The same day he was fired, Doug spoke with his attorney about pressing charges against Larry. He would have had a pretty strong case with the witnesses who saw it, and after they were fired Larry was sending him texts that he could have used as evidence, threatening him and such.
The worst part of the whole situation was that he got fired for “fighting.” His whole goal while he was doing his time was to get some amazing references, and that one would have been golden. He was majoring in marketing, but having that year of factory work on his resume would have been very helpful.
But because of his legal situation, his lawyer said it’d be best to just wait it out. If his judge had heard he had been in a fight, even though he was a clear victim, it would still look bad to the court system.
A Sad Reality
To clarify, from a human resources perspective, firing both people in a fight is fairly common, even if one person was acting in self defense. The policy is typically that employees should not engage in “self-help” in resolving a conflict with another employee.
If someone attacks you, you are supposed to report it to management and management will determine the appropriate action. The appropriate action is generally not punching somebody in the nose, but firing them. Allowing self-help/self-defense would quickly get out of control: “He pushed me, so I hit him, so he picked up a bottle, so I picked up a chair…”
Often the situation isn’t clear and both sides will provide witnesses claiming that “the other guy started it.” And what constitutes starting it: The first punch? The first insult? Who is in the wrong can be hard to determine. The argument will never end. If one fighter is allowed to remain on the job, at the next fight, it will come back to haunt the boss. They will be expected to spare one, even if both should go. As a result, both people lose their job quite often, as was the case with Doug and Larry.