Entitlement has no place in a public gym.

This gym goer was using the bench space in front of his locker for his stuff when an entitled man started berating him for taking up the space.

The exchange took an aggressive turn.

Read below for the full story.

AITA for not moving to another locker room bench

The locker room of my local gym has benches that are wide enough for two people to sit and change. Each half of the bench faces five lockers (first come, first served; unassigned). People usually take up one half of the bench, leaving the other half clear for someone else.

After working out, if I return to the locker room and someone is using the half of the bench in front of my locker, I take out my stuff and use the other half, if it’s empty, or the bench immediately behind.

This happens frequently, as there are about five lockers per bench half. If someone is using an entire bench (which is unusual, as people tend to be more considerate), I may ask them to clear half, or I may just move my things to a separate bench.

Today, I was changing after showering, with my stuff on the bench in front of the locker I had been using (which was empty by then). A guy showed up and pointed at the padlocked locker at the end of the row (also in front of the same half of the bench).

I assumed he was asking for room to reach his locker, so I stepped aside and let him pass.

The man wanted this gym goer to move his stuff to make space for him.

But then he opened his locker and just stood there, staring at me. He told me he was waiting for me to move.

He said that he was entitled to use that half of the bench because that’s where his locker was, and that I was supposed to grab my stuff (gym bag, coat, sweaty gym clothes) and move it to the other half of the bench.

I tried to explain to him that I was just using the bench in front of my (now empty) locker and that I would leave when I finished getting dressed.

I told him that when I got there, there was no one there (just his padlocked locker) and that I was not the one who was supposed to move to accommodate him.

Mind you, the rest of the bench was empty, and so was the bench right behind us. He had plenty of room to put his stuff there, but he kept berating me quite aggressively, saying that I was supposed to move.

So, AITA?

That aggression is clearly misplaced.

Let’s read what other people in the comments are saying.

Here’s an accurate observation.

A valid argument.

This one is chiming in.

An immature argument, says this user.

And people are taking his side.

It is first-come, first-served.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.