Just to nitpick here, but a definition of verbal is “communicated in the form of words”, so it’s not contradictory to receive it in written form.
And yeah, it’s fucked up. My company (once having had beer parties once a month) has gone back and forth on what is allowed and where. At one time we were told that no liquor was allowed in the office, and if in the car it must be in the trunk. Then a few years later we could have a bottle raffle.
Well no, because he’d already left.
That would be to distinguish it from warnings given in charades, right?
(Also, fatgail, you crack me up. Join!)
Daniel
At my company, a “verbal warning” is printed on a piece of paper as well. A “written warning” is carved into your forehead with an awl. And a “carved warning”… well, you don’t want to know.
With all due sympathies, Otto, this is the same shit job you’ve been complaining about for some time, isn’t it? For God’s sake, man, time to abandon ship.
:smack: I read “leaving party” as “he was leaving a party” rather than it was his “going away party.” I got hit by the separation of our common tongue thing.
The newsroom and law office I worked at both didn’t mind if you drank during work hours. But my best story was when I was working as a delivery driver in college for a sub sandwich shop. Sundays were usually pretty dead, so I’d sometimes go off around the corner and get a drink or two at the bar my buddy bartended in between deliveries. One time, after being gone for about a half hour longer than usual after a delivery, my boss asks me if I got lost. So I responded honestly, “Yeah, I got lost in the bar around the way. Any more deliveries?” He just chuckled, said something about me being lucky he liked me, and didn’t say anything about never doing it again or anything. I still can’t believe I admitted to a boss that I was drinking on a delivery job, and he didn’t care.
My company has a pretty strict alcohol policy- they only provide *good *beer at company meetings.
That’s pretty fucked up, Otto.
I keep my keg box at the office.
If I were you, Otto, I’d start dropping hints that something like this might come back to haunt corporate if/when the execs exchange bottles around the holidays. Double standards are a bitch.
Actually, it’s to distinguish it fromthe sort of warning where your supervisor puts on his nun’s habit and walks into your work area silently brandishing a ruler.
Crap, I gotta clean out my car! :eek:
Does your written verbal warning speel out exactly what the complaint is, ie., does it say “found in car in parking lot”? If so, you should insist they staple a copy of the policy to the warning in your file.
I’m guessing there isn’t a union involved. Too bad, as this is one area where they could help and get this pulled from your file post haste.
Damn Otto , you’re always in the shit. Good thing you got that PMA going for you. 
I agree with those who have said you might want to put your version of events, including a copy of the relevant section of the handbook, in your file.
That said, we have an annual nog-off at work, with alcoholic, non-alcoholic, and vegan and non-vegan eggnogs (and last year we also had hard apple cider, yum). The best thing ever, though, was my discovery of a full, unopened bottle of tequila (Cuervo Gold) under my desk that had been left behind by my predecessor. Yeah, he left me a bit of a mess.
No, I don’t drink tequila. I donated it to the office manager.
A couple months back, I was looking through the cabinets in our department for a spare USB cable. I found two cases of beer and a bottle of champaigne. The art director for one of my (particularly troubled) projects has cup labeled “Booze Fund” on her desk. Everyone contributes whatever spare change they have after our team meetings. If it’s a particularly bad meeting, the contributions coming in foldable form. When we finally get this project out the door, we’re going to use the contents of the cup to get absolutely stinko. At the rate this project is going, we should have enough for a week-long bender. Last Thursday, a few of us testers hung around after closing to play games and drink beers. When we left, we piled the empties on the desk of one of the leads.
Honestly, everyone should work software QA. It’s like college all over again, except you get paid by the hour.
I think you should try putting experimental inappropriate items in your back seat. Fake human heads, thigh-high boots,inflatable pool toys, toilet seats, etc. Document and publish results in Academic anthropology periodical of your choice.
Sounds like they are nit-picking and this is one step to the many to add to your file. My experience in management has been: if they (the company or one of the higher-ups) wants you gone, they will find anything and everything to get you out the door. Sometimes it’s stupid shit, but usually stuff the employee won’t go beyond a verbal disagreement and will not press the issue.
Will a written notification of your evidence or your side of the story make a difference? For HR or another internal employee, probably not. For a lawyer, oh yes! Especially if they have such rules as not being able to apply for another position if you have any disciplinary issues, or in cases of shift-bids. Also, if you happen to be terminated or harrassed, having everything documented is essential.
I would definately keep any future bottles locked in your trunk AND/OR bagged up. And for gawds sake, dont ever admit to anything and ask for their evidence. I’d probably even refuse to sign such a document.
You guys taking any applications over there?
That’s because it has verbs in it.
I agree with everyone that it is fucked up.
I would suggest that as a matter of course you always carry booze in the trunk. If you were to get stopped by an officer, out of sight might keep you in the car, and not walking a straight line beside the road.
Please, we just had to get special dispensation and permits from the federal government so that we could get a dozen 55 gallon drums of pure, 200 proof non-denatured alcohol. Now all we need is a couple dozen drums of fruit juice and we will be set for years.