As I left work yesterday I recognized the driver of the car in the previous scenario, driving out of the parking lot. So I slyly gave him the finger while scratching my head. The guy recognized the gesture, gave me an odd smile and returned the gesture. As he drove by, I felt something was out of place. It wasn’t till he was passed me that I realized that wasn’t the intern’s car and that wasn’t him driving it. I just flicked off an innocent man. To add insult to injury, one of the other interns made the same mistake and pointed and laughed at him.

Naturally I was pretty distressed about the situation, as this situation could escalate if it got around that interns were giving other employees the finger. I imagine they’ve fired people for less. So I told my manager and the intern coordinator first thing today, which worked out well. They weren’t too upset and were happy that I had been honest about the situation. My manager even slipped me the finger during a meeting as a joke.

The only unresolved element of this is that I have yet to identify the recipient of my gesture. It seems there are a number of similar looking cars and people in my building. I actually went up to a guy and confused him by asking if we ran into each other yesterday. Hopefully I will find the person and get a chance to explain myself, because it is a funny story.