Asserting authority as a new boss is never easy.

Especially when you’re still getting to know all your co-workers.

But even more so when the previous boss let everything slide.

And that’s exactly the case for the woman in this story, who is having to rein in some wild behavior from her employees.

But the actions of one particularly problematic employee took her completely by surprise.

Read on to find out what he did, and how he managed to turn it around on her.

AITA for calling my coworker disrespectful over a bag of popcorn

I’m a 31-year-old woman, and a head teacher at an academy in South Korea.

I taught here in 2021 and have been back for 3 months.

My three US coworkers all came last August. Unfortunately, the head teacher before me was a pushover and the other two women (Lucy, 27 and Cindy, 23) asked that I be more assertive since John (male, in his late 30s) tends to steamroll everyone.

The trouble has just started brewing.

In my presentation class we needed to talk about the rubric for their final projects, so I needed them to really focus well.

John teaches this group the hour before me.

Previously, he tried to bring very messy snacks to my literature class.

I asked him to please not take snacks to any teachers’ classes unless you’ve spoken to them about it.

Today he made a bag of popcorn and started putting it in little bowls.

Before I went to class I asked him “you’re not planning on bringing that to my class are you?”

And he replied with “no I’m not.”

10 minutes into the class, the door opens.

Here he comes with popcorn and the kids go nuts.

Uh-oh. Let’s see how she reacted to John’s insubordination.

I tell them no and I followed John back to the door.

I said, “I just asked you if you were bringing it to the class and you said no but you did it anyways. That’s so disrespectful.”

It took a couple min to settle the kids, but they didn’t grumble about it after I said they could have the snack after class.

When the class was over, John was out in the hallway giving the kids popcorn and I went to the teachers office.

I said to my coworker Lucy, “I can’t believe he still tried to bring them popcorn when I asked him if he was going to and he said no.”

To this, she responded “and why can’t they have a snack??”

I said “first of all, there are signs in all the classrooms that say no eating during class and second, I said no because I needed them to focus on lesson and that should be reason enough.”

Read on to find out how the situation escalated.

When John came back into the office, I asked to speak privately. I told him that it was disrespectful for him to bring snacks when I had already asked if he was and he had said no.

His response was, “I told you no because that bag had gotten kind of burnt and I wanted to make more. I thought you were only asking if I was taking THAT bag of popcorn”.

I was lowkey floored?

We talked two weeks ago about not bringing food to classes without asking first, and why would I mean that one specific bag of popcorn?

He started yelling about how he was just trying to do something nice.

Let’s see how she responded to his behavior.

I explained to him that I understand that he is doing something kind for the students, but he’s also not the king of the academy and he can’t come into classes in the middle of lesson without asking first.

There was a little more back and forth but by the end he said he understood.

Now I’m still thinking about it. It was literally just popcorn but it just feels like the principle of the matter?

I feel like maybe I was wrong because I didn’t directly say do not bring them snacks because I need to go over really important material at the start of class, but usually we finish early so it’s okay at the end of class.

Lucy’s reaction is also making me feel like I over did it.

AITA?

Let’s be clear: this is not about the popcorn.

It’s about the insubordination that John is showing towards his boss; the fact that he thinks he can barge into other teachers’ classes and bring snacks to make the kids like him, with no regard for what he might be interrupting.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

This person was very clear that John was the issue here.

And others found his behavior even more problematic.

Meanwhile, this Redditor found parallels with his behavior in other situations.

The answer here is clear: John needs to learn to respect his superiors – and his colleagues too.

Getting the kids excited during a serious lesson is not okay, and neither is the way he is relating to his boss.

She shouldn’t have to deal with this.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.