There’s a fine line between professional and unprofessional, and in this story, an innocent caricature was all it took to cross it.

When one employee’s harmless inside-joke sketch of two coworkers landed in front of a newly promoted partner, his reaction blew the whole thing wide open.

What started as a doodle quickly turned into a full HR investigation.

Read on to see how it played out.

Partner of Firm Called HR On Me & My Coworker

I’ve been working at a hedge fund in Miami for around 2 years.

I have a coworker who was recently promoted to being a partner. He 100% deserves this as he is always working.

I’ll refer to him as “the partner.”

Despite his workaholism, the guy still knows how to cut loose.

The partner is interesting, though… I think he has unfortunately blurred the lines between being professional vs. unprofessional.

He & my other coworkers have gone out a few times in New York & Miami.

After last year’s holiday party he invited everyone out to go clubbing. A bunch of us were there until close to 4AM, wasted. It was a really fun time.

So this employee and another worker decide to start joking around at work.

Recently though, my other coworker and I were screwing off at work. I’ll call him “A.”

I ended up sketching a silly drawing of the partner & A. It was nothing inappropriate, just banter.

For context, the drawing was of A in jail, whereas the partner was enjoying a cocktail outside of his cell… It sounds bad, but A is always making self-deprecating jokes about hating his life. He’s a dark humor type of guy.

A thought it was funny.

Knowing his personality outside of work, these employees thought the partner would understand.

I will admit that it was silly/immature of us, but given the environment that the partner has created, we assumed it was fine and he would laugh as he knows A pretty well & sort of knows his humor.

The partner is always yelling at A in front of the rest of the office, by the way. He comes off as very disrespectful from time to time.

Turns out, the partner didn’t appreciate their joking at all.

That was not the case… The partner ended up seeing the drawing I sketched and he not only told my manager, but also had a meeting with us as he cursed off and demanded an explanation for the drawing.

The partner claimed that after he saw it, he couldn’t sleep at night.

Then HR got involved and caused a firestorm of drama.

He also eventually complained to HR, which caused for A to get in even more trouble.

This crap went on for weeks. It was seriously dragged out as by the time the partner decided to tell HR, this had been 2 whole weeks in the making.

It was absolute torture not knowing what would happen and if the partner would actually escalate this.

The manager didn’t seem to think it was that big a deal, but the partner had put her in a tough spot.

At that point, even my manager felt the entire situation was ridiculous as she knew my intentions were not malicious in drawing this sketch.

She told me it was unprofessional, but she didn’t fail to mention that the partner is a wuss for blowing it out of proportion & telling HR.

The wild part is that the sketch contained nothing inappropriate or offensive about the partner.

The manager seems to share many of the same complaints when it comes to the partner.

My manager and I talked about the issue with the partner.

It stems from the fact that half the time he acts as though we need to be professional & the other half of the time we have all seen him sloppy drunk at the club.

This is why A & I felt it was all fun and games in the office when we had some down time.

They speculate on why exactly the partner was so offended.

We also came to the conclusion that the partner’s ego was somehow bruised from my sketch as maybe he took it the wrong way?

We feel this way thanks to his over-the-top reaction & the way he clearly wanted us to get in trouble.

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It is also known at the firm that the partner doesn’t take critics well and tends to think he is always right.

The employee now feels like they’ll never see the partner the same way again.

My overall consensus on the partner now that I’ve had a few experiences with him has changed.

For him to blur the lines when it comes to having fun vs. professionalism has been confusing for all of us — my manager included.

We feel he is not only a wuss, but also comes off as unprofessional with the way he yells at A, and invites all of us to go clubbing with him.

All of this over a silly drawing?

Let’s see what redditors had to say.

There’s a reason why you should always stay on your best behavior at work.

When it comes to the workplace, it pays off to be a bit of a chameleon.

This commenter also doesn’t really see the big deal.

There’s a time and a place for everything, and in the workplace, you have to tread carefully.

Maybe next time he should save the drawing for when he’s off the clock.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who refused to keep giving his coworker rides to work because he left a mess in his car.