The workplace is one of the few spaces where you just can’t choose who surrounds you. If you’re lucky, it might be a coworker you get along with just fine. If not, well, I wish you the best because sharing a space for eight hours every day while tolerating people you don’t like cannot be easy.
Sometimes, it can get so frustrating that you end up acting out of character, and that’s exactly what happened to our narrator. As it turns out, dealing with an oddball was in the cards for her, which is how she ended up in the break room, arguing over chips and eventually cleaning them off the floor. Here’s the full story of what happened.
Read more: Reddit
Initially, everyone gets along with their colleagues, but over time, certain upsetting attitudes may become more evident
Image credits: pch.vector / Freepik (not the actual photo)
In this case, it was an older male colleague who had a habit of snatching things out of people’s hands
Image credits: katemangostar / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Due to his airheaded nature, some people found it endearing or didn’t think too much of it, except one woman who spoke up
Image credits: New Africa / Freepik (not the actual photo)
But even after speaking up, the man continued to take things from people, so the woman decided to do the same to him
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Her plan proved to be the wrong call when suddenly, the two were fighting for a bag of chips that ripped apart
Sometimes, everyone is forced to deal with coworkers they just don’t get along with, but surprisingly, this isn’t one of those stories. Today’s original poster (OP), a 36-year-old woman, found herself in a weirdly childish situation with a colleague, “George,” a 58-year-old man she actually gets along with quite well.
As it turns out, George has a habit of snatching things out of people’s hands, no matter what they are. Files, pens, even snacks—nothing is off-limits. Oddly enough, this doesn’t seem to bother most people, since the OP describes George as “spacey,” and he’s even earned the nickname “Goldfish George.” That said, he does bother at least one person: the OP herself.
The woman is understandably firm about not wanting things taken out of her hands. She explains that she has spoken to George about it multiple times, and each time he says he understands. However, on one occasion, he grabbed a pen straight from her hand while she was filling out a form, leaving an ink mark behind.
That was the final straw, and she decided to handle the situation by giving George a taste of his own medicine. Later, while she was in the break room with a bag of chips, George approached and snatched it from her, so she immediately took it back and called him out, even though she had been willing to share. George, however, didn’t take this well and found her reaction offensive.
Image credits: kues1 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
While his intentions may not have been malicious, he should have known better than to invade someone’s personal space. Studies note that when personal space is crossed, people can become both physically and emotionally defensive. In fact, they show that employees who don’t feel like their space is constantly being invaded report higher levels of productivity in the workplace.
This idea may seem obvious to most, but not necessarily to George. Some people just don’t recognize their behavior as problematic if there’s no ill intent behind it. Experts even suggest that the more comfortable and familiar someone feels in a workplace, the more likely they are to act immaturely, become overly confident, and overstep boundaries.
That’s why professionals emphasize that the best ways to avoid escalating conflict include clear, direct communication, which the woman did try. They also recommend avoiding threats or escalation by involving a superior or a boss to mediate the situation, and lastly, they suggest avoiding retaliation, which is, well, exactly where the OP failed when she decided to give George a taste of his own medicine.
In the end, most netizens agreed that the woman wasn’t in the wrong and that George, regardless of his age, should have known better than to take things out of people’s hands. She constantly tried to address the issue diplomatically, yet he continued to do it despite her requests. So, what would you have done in this situation? Was the OP being childish? Let us know below!
Everyone agreed, though, that the woman was not in the wrong, and everyone should know better than to act like he did
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