I deliberately violated a direct order in writing from my Captain one Christmas in the mid-1980s when I was a Plano Police Department sergeant on the west side of town,.
The week before Christmas, two of my patrolmen came to me with a request. One of the officers was married with two young children. He was scheduled to work on Christmas Day. He wanted to be home with his wife and young kids when they saw what Santa had brought them.
The other officer was single with no family in the area, and he was scheduled to be off on Christmas. He dreaded spending Christmas alone in his apartment with the celebration going on around him, Christmas music on every radio station, and Christmas movies on every TV channel.
So the two officers asked to swap days off that week. Normally, swapping days off was allowed if each of the two officers put in a full 40-hour week, no more, no less. Christmas, however, was the one day in the year when swapping days off was forbidden.
A memo in every officer’s in-box a week earlier from Captain Payne had made that crystal clear. Senior officers had already requested time off and I could not approve any additional holiday, vacation, or comp time for the married cop with kids.
Captain Lyndon Payne was a bit on the OCD side. He liked everything spic and span. Nothing out of order. Everything according to schedule and on time. No deviation. The Captain’s memo was unambiguous.
“Okay,” I told them “There will be hell to pay. You know that.” They understood. “You guys enjoy Christmas and I’ll fade the heat for you.” We went ahead with the plan.
Sure enough, at the end of the pay period when Captain Payne was reviewing the payroll sign in sheets, he spotted the discrepancy. Knowing me as he did, I suspect he was looking for it. He called me into his office and delivered probably the harshest chewing out I ever got at Plano PD.
He ended the “counseling session” with the strongest order that I would absolutely NOT repeat that act of insubordination the following year. I assured him it would never happen again, but the look in his eyes conveyed his suspicion that I was lying through my teeth. He knew that if I were faced with the same situation next Christmas, I would do it all over again.