Nothing dampens the mood at a family dinner faster than everyone asking for special favors.

Imagine sitting down for a nice meal, only to have your uncle ask for company data, your aunt push you for a referral you can’t give, and the rest of the table treating your employee discount like a free-for-all.

Would you explain to each of them why you can’t do that? Or would you just get up and walk out?

In the following story, one ecommerce employee encountered this very situation at dinner and it was way too much for him.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for walking out after my relatives kept pressuring me to misuse my work access for family favors?

So, last night we had a family dinner.

First, my uncle asked me to pull some data for his marketing team since I work for an e-commerce company.

Then, my aunt tried to convince me to submit a referral for her boyfriend’s son.

I told her that the role needed relevant experience, and I would not lie.

He tried to reason with them, but they wouldn’t listen.

I told all of my relatives that I would not use my job access for any personal favors.

That means, no data, no internal documents, no priority referrals.

Somehow, they also started listing items to buy with my employee discount. I explained policy, conflict rules, and audit trails.

Moreover, I showed the code of conduct section on my phone. They told me that nobody gets caught, and I should help them.

Now, he wants to avoid these types of family events.

That dinner was too much for me, so I left the restaurant.

They seem not to get my point, but I will still follow the rules.

I will not attend events where pressure is applied because my job is not a family vending machine.

I don’t like people asking me to break policy since I want to respect my limits and not lose the invitation.

AITA?

Yikes! These people don’t know when to quit.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit think he should handle this situation.

This person thinks embarrassing them will make it stop.

According to this person, no one should treat him like that.

Here’s someone who thinks he should shut them down every time.

As this reader explains, it shows a lack of respect.

He needs to distance himself, at least for a while, because these people have no respect for him.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.