A Stylist Poured Days Of Work Into Her Practice Mannequin, So When A Careless Coworker Vandalized It, She Considered Pressing Formal Charges
by Benjamin Cottrell

Pexels/Reddit
Learning new techniques at the hair salon takes time, patience, and materials — ones you often pay for yourself.
One stylist’s mannequin, meant for careful practice, became a target for someone’s mean-spirited stunt.
Now she’s torn between letting it go or going lethal.
Read on for the full story.
WIBTA If I Press Charges Against My Co Worker for Vandalism?
I (22F) work at a hair salon.
The hair salon I work for is part of a large chain of retail and salons. I work with three other people in the salon.
But here’s where the issue started.
My problem here is that I have a mannequin head I use to practice new techniques, color application, and formulas on. I always keep it on my assigned station.
I spent two days prepping that mannequin to try new formulas on and product I bought with my own money.
While the product only cost $15, I spent between 14–16 hours on it to color correct it.
So she was horrified to discover this mannequin was not how she left it.
Well, I came back, and one of my co-workers put dark blue and dark red on it. If you know anything about hair, blue and red are hard to remove from the hair.
It was placed back on my assigned station and positioned in a way I wouldn’t notice at first glance, so that’s how I know it was intentional.
So she gets the ball rolling on reporting this issue, but it’s really impacting her mental health.
I told the managers, and they took a picture and said they’d check the camera, but I went ahead and filed a complaint with HR.
I called my parents crying because, again, I already spent two days working on it, and now I may have to spend more than twice that.
Her family seems to think she could take this issue further than her managers if she wanted to.
My dad looked into our state and local laws, and I can file charges against them that would result in a class-C misdemeanor and a $500 fine, but I don’t know if that’s taking it too far.
So Reddit, WIBTA???
Standing up for yourself often comes with tough choices.
What did Reddit think?
Maybe there’s a more direct way to handle this dispute.

Perhaps an ultimatum could get things moving.

It’s essential that she stands her ground here.

One way or another, the culprit needs to face accountability.

She tried to handle this professionally, but with no apology or accountability, she’s left with few remaining options.
In the end, it looks like her only mistake was trusting her colleagues.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.
Categories: STORIES
Tags: · aita, bad coworkers, hr, HR complaints, illegal activities, legal action, mannequin, picture, pressing charges, reddit, top, vandalism
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