Lactose intolerant man makes coworker cry when he thinks she 'poisoned him.' AITA?
When this man loses his mind on his coworker, he asks Reddit:
'AITA for flipping out on coworker for giving me ice cream and claiming it's vegan (dairy free) when I specifically told her I'm lactose intolerant?'
Obligatory burner account because some friends and coworkers follow my main. As the title says, my coworker offered me ice cream. I declined, stating that I'm severely lactose intolerant and cannot have milk or cream.
She already knew that, so it was more of a reminder to her that I'm lactose intolerant.
She then told me it's vegan and I asked are you sure, to which she reassured me that it is in fact vegan. For what it's worth, the ice cream was one of those Japanese Mochi green tea ice creams.
About a half hour after I ate it I started feeling stomach cramps and when I checked the trash for any remnants of the ice cream, I realized that it was in fact regular ice cream.
For background, this coworker has a long history of not telling the truth and/or pranking people, and I should have known better than to trust her. She will do things like text that she is going to be late or not able to come to work, as she is either on the way to work or already at work...
She will say our other coworker told her he isn't coming to work only for her to laugh when he shows up. She even pretended to come out to me as lesbian and then laughed at me for believing her.
So, when I realized she had lied to me to get me to eat real ice cream, I lost it. Mind you this was at about hour 11 of a 12 hour double shift and for more background info we work in a retail food space so there were customers around. I should also add that I am a male and we are around the same age late 30s/early 40s.
In front of the customers I did raise my voice at her yelling that it was absolutely messed up that she would do that, knowing that I'm going to have to be stuck in the bathroom for the next few hours.
And that she, as a vegetarian should know better and that I would never trick her into eating meat. My description makes it sound kinda tame but I was actually shouting at some point and aggressively pointing my finger at her.
She then went to the owner of the store and cried. I locked myself in the bathroom for an hour before racing home to continue my throne sitting for a few more hours at least in the comfort of my own home.
Now that I've calmed down, I feel like in my rage I was acting abusive in my reaction and should have kept my cool better. So I decided to let you all decide if I was an asshole or not. AITA?
Let's see what readers had to say.
kaliblaze writes:
NTA. You should have gone to the store owner and said “Coworker just deliberately made me ill. She gave me ice cream that she swore was vegan, because I reminded her that I’m lactose intolerant. I’m going to be ill and stuck in the bathroom for hours. This was deliberate and malicious.”
And your boss should have fired her for that, because it is going so far beyond the pale. It may even be a form of assault or battery in your area, so you may be able to press charges if you want.
I generally come down pretty hard on people for flying into a rage, but…she deliberately hurt you, physically, and you limited yourself to yelling. Sure, yelling isn’t 100% ideal, but nobody responds ideally to being injured.
wikkitywitch writes:
NTA. And tbh, I'd go to management about this. 'The pranking is one thing. But she's harassing me and it's not only affecting my ability to work, it's affecting my health. She POISONED ME, knowing full well that I can't have dairy and she lied to my face and told me it wasn't.' Report her.
This is the same as messing with someone's food. I know it's not an allergy, but it's causing you pain and it's genetic and a medical condition you can't do anything about, other than avoid the food you can't intake. She knew that. And this 'habit' of hers should rightly get her fired.
shurga36 writes:
NTA for going off but kinda Y.T.A. for not checking the ice cream yourself (you were able to check the discarded carton after the fact). You should realize that this woman is the way she is.