Preferred parking for managers and administrators is really just jackass parking.

I don’t understand the preferred parking spots set aside for the managers of companies, the presidents of golf clubs, and the owners of small businesses. The signs that say Reserved for the Manager. Club President Only. Presidential Parking.

Or even worse, when one of these jackasses puts their name on the sign.

I realize that my managerial experience is limited to fast food franchises and a brief stint with a marketing company, but I started managing McDonald’s when I was 16 and didn’t really stop until I had finished college at the age of 28, and I’ve always believed that if you can manage a crew of 50-80 McDonald’s employees, ages 16-60, you can manage almost anyone. High school students, retirees, non-English speakers, drug addicts, impoverished parents working three jobs, parolees, and a girl who once threatened to kill herself if I didn’t date her were just a smattering of the hundreds, if not thousands of people who I managed over the years.

One of the most important lessons that I learned was that the more in touch a manager is with his employees and their lives, the more effective that manager will be. When employees feel that the manager is pulling an oar just like everyone else, productivity, respect and commitment result. Sticking up a sign beside the building that separates yourself from your employees for the sake of a few steps is just stupid.

And I've heard managers and administrators argue that they need a closer parking spot because they are coming and going all the time and need immediate access to their vehicle in order to save time.

Nonsense.

Even an extra 50 steps acorss a parking lot a dozen times a day isn't worth this level of douchbaggery.

Near the end of my career with McDonald’s, I worked for a man named Jalloul Montacer, and in the two years that we spent together, he taught me that one of the most important parts of my work day was the five minutes I spent saying hello to each of my employees at the beginning of my shift and the five minutes that I spent saying goodbye at the end of my shift. He taught me that when you care about your employees and demonstrate your commitment to them, they will perform, and this can done with a gesture as simple as a hello and a goodbye.

He was right.

Jalloul would never have tolerated a Manager Parking sign at our restaurant. More likely, he would’ve given away his spot to a pregnant mother, an elderly employee, or simply left the spot for a customer and parked somewhere in the back.

It takes a special breed of jackass to think that you're important enough to park a little closer to the front door than everyone else.