2/5
I found a big fish in a little pond.
I've used this efficient little refuse center for years and had always liked and respected the regular staff there. Sadly, with the change of staff comes a change of attitude and, in this case, common sense has been exchanged for a "jobs worth" mentality.
Sensibly, some parking bays are cordoned off to maintain safe distance between customers (every other bay) due to current CoVid regulations but this means a standard rule (the rule that dictates cars must drive in, not reverse in) doesn't necessarily work if you're not unloading from your boot. The logistics are changed by the temporary lay out.
Having reversed into the end bay in order to unload from a side door of my car (and therefore exit safer than reversing out) I was told to turn the car around.
I explained why I'd parked as I had (it was fully and squarely in the bay) but I was told again that I need to drive into the space otherwise I'd be getting out into a cordoned-off bay. The bay had nothing the other side of it, no way of getting close to anyone, so I asked why it would matter. Perhaps some degree of common sense kicked in with the staff member at this point as realisation dawned on his face but, rather than accept reason, he simply told me that
"It's the rule and that's that" so I continued to try reason but was clearly wasting my time with this apparently blinkered staff member. He even had to move fencing in order for me to remove the rubbish from my side door into the area he had originally said he didn't me venturing into (it was rather comical to watch, he STILL didn't accept the mess he'd got himself into) and another result was that I now had to exit my car on a side closer to another customer (another of his original 'concerns' that he'd now made happen)
"That alright?" he asked
"Not really" I replied, "but I'll go along with it" because, at the end of the day, if you give certain people a little bit of power, they really do revel in it.
Had he really been suitable for any position of authority, he would have possessed common sense, rather than blindly enforcing a temporarily obsolete rule simply because...
Rules is rules