Coworkers can sometimes blur the line between a favor and an expectation.

What would you do if a colleague asked you for daily lifts to work, even though your schedules never lined up and the commute was the only quiet time you had to yourself?

Would you agree to help out of politeness? Or would you set boundaries and risk being seen as rude?

In the following story, a young doctor finds himself in this exact predicament and decides to protect his peace.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for refusing to give lifts to work for my colleague?

I’m a newly graduated doctor who just started my internship.

The hospital is rural and, unfortunately, an hour and a half away (without traffic), meaning I have to make the drive every morning, which many other interns also do.

On the first day, another intern (I had never met him before) approached me and asked if I’d be able to give him lifts because he heard from another colleague who’s a friend of mine that we live close to each other.

I didn’t really feel comfortable about it, but I wanted to be polite and agreed.

There are several reasons that carpooling won’t work.

The day after, in the car, the dude turned out to be alright, but I explained to him my hesitance to give him lifts almost every day for the next year – firstly, as interns, we don’t really come in at the same time every day, it depends on the department.

Sometimes I have to leave the house at 5 am, sometimes at 6 am. We also don’t have shifts on the same days, and even if we do, it’s not guaranteed that we’ll leave at the same time – again, different departments, different rules on when the work is finished, and how flexible the rules are for interns.

I just don’t want to feel dependent on when he finishes or keep going back and forth in texts every day, like ” Are you done yet?”

He likes his privacy during driving time.

He replied that he understands and that I don’t have to wait for him; I can just take him whenever it’s convenient for me.

Still, I can imagine that there will be numerous days when, out of politeness, I’ll have to wait “just 15 minutes” when I want to get home.

Secondly, I use the drive as a bit of private time. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts, call my family members who live far, and chat with them to stay in contact. I’d rather not have a stranger listen in.

Now, his coworker is giving him trouble about it.

He was visibly upset but said he understood.

On the subsequent days, my colleagues have been giving me **** for being an ******* and not wanting to help out.

I understand that his inconvenience of having to depend on buses that take 2 hours of driving + 40 minutes of walking and are only every 2 hours (they run between 5 am and 6 pm) are much bigger than mine, but I feel like it’s not really my problem that he doesn’t have a driving licence yet chose this hospital for his internship.

AITA?

Wow! That’s an awkward situation.

Let’s check out what advice the readers over at Reddit have to offer.

Here’s someone who gets it.

According to this person, this is not his problem.

This reader sees both sides.

As this person points out, his friend can volunteer his own time.

This is not his problem, and he shouldn’t feel bad for protecting his peace.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.