Caught? Outed to Boss?!?!

[JessicaH (imported)]

Maybe I was stupid, overly brave or just simply miscalculated the odds, but last night I drove Paula and Valerie to a drag show at a gay bar about an hour away from where I work... In my company vehicle with a logo on the side. Now, before you you think "what an idiot", let me explain my rational.

My personal car was at my job locked behind a fence and I didnt have time to get it. I have a F-150 truck that I drive that is part of my compensation and we can drive them anywhere I want and even use the company gas card.

So, Paula and I get ready (en femme) at Valerie's (another MtF) house and we jumped on the interstate and drove straight to Lake Charles, LA which is 50 miles of high speed Interstate driving and it was hours past dark and I also have pretty dark tint on my truck. The bar was about a minute off the interstate and we parked in a crowded parking lot behind the bar. It was uneventful but we had a good time and left early about 12:30 since I have to get up at 6am. We went straight to Val's house, I changed and went home and was in bed by 2:30am (almost cried when alarm went off).

So yesterday, my friends truck blew a valve and needed a company truck for a few days so I tod him to just use mine since my car was already there. I clean out everything I needed and put it in my car and I double checked that nothing "odd" was left behind. My boss (who is really cool and I consider him a good friend) is standing by the gate close to my truck and "K" is loading his stuff in the tool box and he hollers out "hey, you left a dead hooker in here"! We all laughed at the absurd statement and my boss is laughing and says, "well at least we know where he found her in Louisiana"..

It was all I could do to NOT look like a deer in the headlights. Then he said, "You're truck was in louisiana last night, wasn't it?" If someone knew it was MY truck, then they must have seen the driver! All the work trucks are F-150's and all the same color. I was suddenly very ill inside but I forced a confused look on my face and said "it wasn't MY truck". I havn't been to LA since last Thursday. He just smiled in a knowing way and said he has eyes EVERYWHERE and not much gets past him since he knows almost EVERYONE in two states.

He didn't push it much further and I suspect that he didn't want to embarrass me. Then with a friendly smile and a slightly quieter voice that no one else would have been able to understand, he said was that someone was pretty sure it was my truck and the driver looked kinda funny...

Now I'm wondering , what the hell does he know? And more important, who told him and what do THEY know. It may sound crazy but I bust up laughing every time I think about it. Maybe it's one of those "gotta laugh to keep from crying", kind of things. LOL

Today has been normal and nothing else was said. Maybe there was enough "plausible deniability" or he knows and that was his way of saying "be more discrete in your personal life".

[sduyck_2000 (imported)]

he has a gps locator on the truck and can see everywhere you go on his computer....he has one on all the trucks if he is doing what i think...it is almost the same a lojack device

almost all company trucks do nowdays

your truck reports where it is at everyday

he wont tell you the truth as he does not want all the employees to know they are all being watched for goofing off

[JessicaH (imported)]

No GPS on management trucks. I would know since I am the tech guy. Someone had to have seen me driving and knew my boss and called...

[Losethem (imported)]

I think you have nothing to worry about.

You work in an "at-will" state, and if your boss was worried about it he could have fired you for blinking your eyes.

I'd just go on like nothing happened.

--LT

[Caith721 (imported)]

I agree with losethem. If he seriously wanted to say or do anything about it, he already would have. Don't sweat it, and if he asks or tells you anything next week, THEN it's something to worry about. Honestly, it could have been he himself visiting the same venue in his personal vehicle, when he happened to notice the truck. In which case, I seriously doubt you have ANYTHING to be concerned over.

[punkypink (imported)]

he sounds pretty cool. better than the shit ive gotten at university from other students since it got leaked out.

[transward (imported)]

I think you are overlooking one of the most likely reason for all this.

I have a F-150 truck that I drive that is part of my compensation and we can drive them anywhere I want and even use the company gas card.

If you can drive them anywhere, there is no reason to comment about you being at Lake Charles, LA, so he was telling you he knew where you were going. The only way he would know that is either he or someone close to him was at the gay bar. Are you sure he doesn't cross dress or fancy trans folk of one sort or another? For another employee to out you to the boss, he would be outing himself. "Hey, Boss, guess who I saw at the drag show" tells the boss where you were. (And your boss might be outing himself a little bit) Though I would take care if the vehicle is labeled with the company logo. Parking that in a gay bar parking lot is not good company PR in red states, which you definitely are. (In Seattle he would probably ask you to drive the company truck in the Gay Pride Parade and give you a bonus for outreach to the GLBTIQetc community)

In ambiguous situations like this it is often better to give a half smile and a slight nod and an ambiguous answer like "Yeah, I do have an active social life sometimes." Often by the time you are on the defensive and denying everything, you are already lost. Witness celebrity scandals ad nauseam

Transward

[JessicaH (imported)]

Either way, I will not do anything like that again unless I get magnetic decales to cover the sticker logos on my truck or use my personal vehicle. I don't think anything else will come of it

[punkypink (imported)]

Often by the time you are on the defensive and denying everything, you are already lost. Witness celebrity scandals ad nauseam

Transward

Or in some cases you just need a bunch of young people with no respect for others or no brains (or possibly both) to spread something around that they assume must be true.

[devi (imported)]

Something about Louisiana. Folks from northern Louisiana will always be the quickest to point out that their NOT from the southern portion. And then folks from neighboring states and even two states over are warned from childhood to not go there and if they have to pass through to not stop for too long. You can even get disowned for having happened to be down there at Mardis Gras time as in, "Sa-a-ay, zactly what day was it 'at you was down there?" And then when someone from close to there has been noticeably up all night (and folks can tell) then it is up to you to be able to prove that you had not ever crossed that Louisiana line or if you are in louisiana that parish line. If you weren't in the local hole then... Sons and daughters avoid their mothers the next day always. But the mother knows. Even preachers get busted.

[Caith721 (imported)]

I'm originally from southwest Louisiana, and I've avoided my mother ever since I graduated from high school. (true story)

[Eunuchorn (imported)]

I am losing my job on or near the tenth of January. Seems I was caught asleep sometime in the past 4 years of service to the client. It's a small account, just me and another guy, and so they place the blame on me for losing the account. They don't want to put me on another account because they think I would lose them that one, too.

Funny thing, though. I spread this around the work site, and got 2 referances,

and one guy wants to speak with my boss about me. (not even in my chain of command, and he wants to speak with my boss)

So yeah, Caught, outed to boss. No happy ending yet, though....

[devi (imported)]

Guess, I have to say that I myself am not from Louisiana. I'm Colorado-NewMexico Hispanic of mixed decent. However I have been told that if I ever showed up at Mardis Gras I'd be disowned. My best friend of almost twenty years was raised in a dry parish west of New Orleans. His mother was an ultra-strict Southern Baptist and his father came from a Catholic background whereas my mother was an ultra-strict Catholic who observed Jewish diet and traditions also and then my dad was Protestant. We were the opposite of each other and yet the same. Since we had been together so long and had been on so many outings and trips together I had heard so many tales from out that way. He was a good deal older than I was and had health issues. One day something seemed wrong so I made a special trip out to where he lived (here in Colorado) but there was an ambulance and too many cars in his yard so I didn't stop. I was able to finally convince myself that it was his mother that had passed on. But it was him.

[JessicaH (imported)]

Well, its been a little over 3 months and nothing has ever been said about the incident. Im not sure how long I can take HRT and still work there. Someday, I will know what really happened that night and who knew what but for now it is best to let sleeping dogs lay.

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

So far, so good. It pleases me that there was no negative fall-out for you. --FLO--

[JessicaH (imported)]

Well, it's been almost a year on M2F HRT and nothing has been said about the incident or anything else. My hair in the avatar is all mine and I'm shocked that I haven't been told by my boss to go get a haircut. Instead of negative fallout, I have recieved a good raise and promotion and run out operations in East Africa now. So far so good!

[Elizabeth (imported)]

Do the trucks have electronic toll pay? A record of what tolls were charged to that account and by what truck would be available to the owner. He may only know that you crossed a bridge into another state. He may not know why. I predict the friend story is a ruse.

Elizabeth

[Richard_Less (imported)]

I would suspect your boss only knew that you crossed the border (not your dress) and was "yanking your chain" with the other detail as a subtle warning to be mindful of your use of company property (as you suggested).

You should always be careful of where you go with another's vehicle - even you own.

I heard about a guy who had gone to a strip club and his car was hit or vandalized while he was inside. He tried to lie about where it happened so his wife wouldn't find out but in order make an insurance claim he had to admit the truth - not sure if his wife actually found out.

Best to park in another parking lot and do an extra bit of walking, though I know that some bars/clubs/whatever may be remote with no other businesses nearby. One could always park in town and get a cab in those cases.

[JessicaH (imported)]

There were no tolls in the area so it couldn't have been that. I've been wondering if they know more about me than I thought becasue they have not given me a hard time about my which as you can see in my avatar, is on my shoulders and I had a "ranger cut" for the previous 5 years here. They have obviously noticed my hair and even make a little joke now and then about it but only in a friendly way. My boss is quite candid and if he didn't like my hair, he'd just say, "go get a f'ing haircut". Who knows. I gues I will have to ask them someday after I leave this job and go full time.

[_g (imported)]

Do the trucks have electronic toll pay? A record of what tolls were charged to that account and by what truck would be available to the owner. He may only know that you crossed a bridge into another state. He may not know why. I predict the friend story is a ruse.

Elizabeth

Luckily the West USA does not have toll roads that I know off but some bridges do have tolls.

_g