Working in end of life care means knowing when a room calls for silence, and not everyone figures that out right away.

A care worker present at a patient’s bedside as he was dying watched a coworker two weeks into the job walk in unannounced and start talking loudly about his breathing without reading the room at all.

She asked her quietly to take it outside or bring it down, but instead of being understanding, her coworker apologized and left the room sobbing.

Now she’s wondering if she should apologize for simply looking out for her patient.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for making my co-worker cry?

I just want to reiterate that this was a complete accident and I had no intention of making her cry at all. I do feel a little bad.

I am a care worker and we have a resident who was on palliative care and unfortunately passed away today.

I was in the room when he passed, and it was very peaceful but also very upsetting.

Here’s where the conflict arose.

When he was still breathing, my co-worker, who has only worked here two weeks, walked in without knocking, bent over his bed, and started talking about his breathing really loudly.

I was a bit shocked, and she just kept going.

So the employee tries to gently intervene, but her coworker had quite the unexpected reaction.

I said to her, “Can you maybe say this out of the room or quietly? He can still hear you and we want him to be peaceful, not distressed.”

She said “I’m sorry” in a really small voice and then walked out sobbing.

Now the employee is conflicted.

I feel awful because I didn’t mean to make her feel bad, but I felt like she didn’t have much awareness of her surroundings or the situation, and felt that something needed to be said.

I do believe I could’ve taken her out of the room and said it, but I did say it as quietly as I could.

AITA?

Dealing with coworker drama like this is never easy.

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This commenter thinks this should have just been common sense.

This user thinks she was right to speak up, even though it clearly ruffled some feathers.

At the end of the day, this was a lesson her coworker needed to learn.

How this coworker chooses to handle this feedback will determine how successful she is at the job.

The care worker questioning herself here is proof that she handled this with more thoughtfulness than the situation technically required.

She was in the middle of one of the hardest parts of the job and still managed to correct a colleague quietly, specifically, and without humiliation, which is a remarkable level of professionalism under that kind of emotional pressure.

The new coworker walking out in tears isn’t evidence that something went wrong with her approach. When someone reacts this disproportionately, it’s usually a sign something else is going on with them.

Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but it’s still worth doing.

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