Can You Really Trust Your Doorman?

So, after an interesting encounter with my doormen this weekend, I decided that I am going to write this post from personal experience.

While I still have many questions I would like to ask of future contacts:
-What makes a good doorman?
-Is there a doorman hierarchy aside from seniority?
-Do you ever hang out with your "co-workers" outside of work? Would you want to? Have you ever bumped into them outside of work?
-How do you get all the gossip of the building?
-What's the ideal tenant like? What happens on the ideal shift?

I think this weekend has taught me quite a few things about the different "strategies" a doorman can abide by.

So. Story time.

Friday night, me and my roommates had about 15 people over. We were all about to leave the apartment when my friend opened our door to a young woman stumbling down the hallway. It wouldn't have been that strange had she been clothed in more than a wet tank top and underwear... and maybe if she hadn't been dragging one crutch with her. So, we close the door, hoping she'll just return to wherever she came from. Then she knocks on our door and drunkenly asks us if she can come party with us, we politely decline, and find out she lives 2 doors down. Three of us escort this drunk girl and her crutch back to her apartment. There is broken glass scattered in front of the stairwell in the hallway and we assume that it once held whatever pink liquid was now all over her shirt. After helping this woman zigzag back to her apartment, we wake up her roommate, return to our own apartment, and go out with our remaining guests at about 2:30 am.

We get back at 4:30, and our doorman, Sam, grumbles that someone might be complaining about us to the office in the morning. Now, my apartment has had their fair share of parties. However, the rest of our floormates are no angels either (as evidenced by our neighbor's recent escapade.) So I explain to Sam that there is broken glass in front of the stairwell and that some girl was stumbling through the hallway knocking on doors - not our fault. Obviously, I don't want our apartment to get blamed for that.

I ask for Sam's advice. This is what he tells me:

Don't tell Jeffrey (our Super), because if you tell him, he will just assume it's you. I've been working here for 16 years and I don't trust Jeffrey. The guy working before me didn't say there were any parties tonight and that's what I'm going to say to the guy that takes the shift after me. Jeffrey isn't going to know who it was and he can't just blame anyone. He's just going to have to deal with it. If you tell him, he's only going to believe that you're the ones who did it.

I believe Sam. He's always been pretty nice to us, and hey - any guy that's worked here for 16 years must have a better handle on these kinds of situation than I do. His logic makes sense - our super can't blame anyone - so might as well just not bring attention to ourselves.

I thank Sam, go back upstairs, and go to sleep.

Saturday at about 9 am - my roommate hears someone coming up the stairs and puking in the hallway. Gross.

But around 11 am, when we survey the damage in the hallway, everything is clean and the glass is gone. Awesome. No one says anything to us at any point in the day. Even more awesome.

Sunday - still nothing.

Monday - I come home from class and Robert asks me if we had any parties this weekend. I explain to him that we had a handful of people over on Friday night, but everyone left by 2:30 - nothing major. He tells me that someone called the office and complained that someone from our party puked in front of their doorway.

What?

I explain the one-crutch drunk mess, the glass, and the audible 9 am puke noises, and Sam's advice to Robert. He believes me and acknowledges that he doesn't know how we should go about trying to fix this - apparently the office has already been notified and we might be getting a letter.

Ugh.

I ask him what we should have done in that situation. I explain to him that I told Sam, the doorman on duty. Should we have called and complained ourselves? That seemed stupid to me.

Apparently, when our neighbor complained about the puke, our super automatically assumed it was our fault...along with the broken glass. When Robert tried to stick up for us, Jeffrey told him not to bother because Robert wasn't the doorman on duty that night.

I was frustrated. I had told Sam that night, why didn't he say something to Jeffrey?

Robert tries to make me feel better - "the worst that can happen is you get a formal warning or they don't let you renew your lease."

What's done is done, but I still don't think it's right that we have to start complaining about other people in order to protect ourselves. And even if we say something now, Jeffrey is probably going to think we're just making it up.

According to Robert, Sam doesn't like us. "That's probably why he told you not to say anything. He probably wants you guys out of here. He just doesn't care what happens to anyone as long as he gets to keep his job."

I ask Robert what we're supposed to do if this happens again while Sam is on duty.

He tells me: "Write it in the repair book or something, that's what Jeffrey checks in the morning."

I think to myself - sounds shady, but I guess that's what we have to do.

I tell Robert: "I wish you had been on duty Friday night."

Robert: "Yeah, me too. Then your story would have been straight."

Moral: While "protect tenants" may be in the job description for a doorman, he very well might do just the opposite.