Ricky lets out a sigh. At that moment he was blinded by a five-course serving of rage that tasted bitter, yet surprisingly satisfying. Why would they do this? He had asked them time and time again to clean their stuff up, but instead of agreeing and being a decent human being, they merely ignored, smirked, and laughed at Ricky.
But Ricky wasn’t standing for this. Not anymore. He could feel anger boil deep in his system. As hot as lava it churned within, hungry for revenge.
For Ricky Mayer, he loved his job. The pay was great, the hours were flexible and he got to do what he loved! Yes, Ricky thought he landed himself his dream job.
But then one day everything turned upside down for Ricky. And nothing was ever the same again.
Near Ricky’s office space there was another office space that was currently undergoing construction. It was right below Ricky’s office so it wasn’t exactly far away or peaceful.
Ricky was annoyed at the building management for not notifying him of the latest construction, but he was way more annoyed at something else.
You see, since construction started, the builders had turned the office space into a legitimate dumping ground! For Ricky to get to his office he had to walk past light fixtures, tool bags, random chairs in the walkway, and a toilet bowl!
But the mess wasn’t the only problem.
All throughout the day, Ricky had to sit and listen to the builders talking rubbish, while 12 of them sat in a room fit for 5.
Ricky could feel the anger bubble inside him as he tried to finish his work, but the loudness was too much. Little did he know things were only going to get worse.
The office was like a teenager’s bedroom, but instead of messy clothes and stale socks, the floor was covered in building materials and tools. Ricky asked the builders to keep it clear as it was the walkway to his office, not a storeroom, and their reply left Ricky lost for words.
The builders just rolled their eyes and let out a smirk. But this wasn’t funny. This was Ricky’s workspace. He didn’t need this. So at that moment then Ricky knew he had to something. And he had to be quick.
Ricky decided to take a picture of the mess and report it to the building management. One week later Ricky walked into his office and saw that the builders had tidied up their mess; but only slightly.
“Ah, we cleaned up a bit, no need to thank us,” they said in a sarcastic and malicious tone. Ricky thought this would be the end. But it was far from over.
A few weeks later it was almost worse than it was before, to the point where Ricky couldn’t leave his office without moving 4 boxes of supplies out from directly in front of the door!
He also heard them say some pretty nasty things about him. Calling Ricky stuck up and selfish. But Ricky wasn’t any of those things. He just wanted a quiet and peaceful workplace. Ricky had no idea what would happen next.
A few months passed and it was lunchtime so Ricky decided to step out to go get a coffee from his local coffee shop.
Before he opened his office door, he looked through the window of the door and saw something on the floor. His heart started to race like an Olympian going for gold and His fists clenched up. This was it. He’d had enough.
Right in front of the doorway was a half-eaten spaghetti in a bowl sitting on the floor!
This was the breaking point of Ricky’s patience. He could feel his anger brew like tea in a pot. His face was the color of an over-ripe tomato, and he knew wasn’t going to stand for this anymore. He had to make them pay.
With a vein almost popping in his temple and his fists tightly clenched, Ricky opened the door and ‘tripped’ on the bowl of spaghetti, chasing it to spray all over the room below and the two builders.
Spaghetti gets on everything! Sauce on their computers, noodles in the toilet bowl, it’s in the carpet and most impressively all over the builders! But the builders weren’t happy.
The builders started to shout at Ricky but he got just as mad yelling out, “who puts a bowl of spaghetti on the floor in front of a door!”. Ricky snapped, and at that point, he started to scream at them which was very out of character for him.
He told them “This is an office, not a storeroom”, and “you’re worse than my teenage nephew!” He told them to clean their stuff up or he’ll start kicking everything aside that was on the path, delicate or not.
The builders sheepishly said yes and Ricky went to get his coffee. When he returned no one was in the office and the mess was still on everything apart from the computers. But Ricky didn’t care anymore. He retreated back into his office and focused on his work.
Fast forward a few hours and Ricky received an email. It was from the building management.
Ricky cracked crack a huge smile as he read the email. “The builders reported your conduct and had us come to inspect the damage. However, we noticed the unacceptable amounts of mess in the office space had not been cleared up from the last time we asked them to, so we expect them to clean up the mess, pay for cleaning.”
The email finished with, “and we intend to place no blame on you in this case. If the mess comes back call us directly, as they are on their last warning.” Ricky let out a sigh of relief.
As he finished reading the email Ricky looked out through the window while the builders below crawl around on their hands and knees scrubbing spaghetti out of the carpet.
He wasn’t proud of losing his cool and handling things the way he did, but he couldn’t deny the fact it worked, and it felt really, really good.
