It is great when you can joke around with your coworkers and have fun while on the job. It makes the day go by faster, and can even be a great place to make new friends.

What would you do if you had been making jokes about one of your coworkers’ names for a while, but then he went to HR about it, and they fired you immediately?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, and he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. The guy never even said that the jokes bothered him, so how could he know that he should have stopped?

I tend to agree that the coworker should have asked him to stop, and HR should have just given him a warning. Read all the details below and see if what this guy did should have gotten him fired.

AITA for using a song as a joke at work?

So, six months ago, a new colleague called Scott joined our team.

This seems pretty harmless.

As someone who grew up around the time of the movie Eurotrip, I automatically thought of ‘Scotty Doesn’t Know’.

I made the reference jokingly a couple of times to him. And he seemed to laugh it off without really saying much.

So far, I don’t see anything wrong with this.

Everyone in our team thought it was funny, and everyone would join in and say things like ‘Ohhhh don’t tell Scotty!’ whenever he mentioned his girlfriend. Which he seemed to take in good enough humour.

So, eventually I thought it would be funny to set the song ‘Scotty Doesn’t Know’ as my ringtone on my work phone for every time he called.

Apparently, he didn’t think it was very funny.

Again, everyone seemed to think this was acceptable and funny – it always got laughs every time he rang.

Anyway, somehow it got back to him. And he decided to take it really personally and went to HR.

I really don’t see how this is harassment. A joke gone too far, maybe, but definitely not harassment.

Didn’t even say to all of us that he didn’t find it funny. Unfortunately, they have done an investigation and decided I am the sole perpetrator.

They’ve taken a very harsh line and have let me go for gross misconduct, accusing me of targeted sexual harassment, which I think is ridiculously unfair.

The problem seems to be that he took it too far.

I initially went to the HR sub for advice, but I got absolutely flayed alive over there and called a total jerk lol.

But I don’t get how, it’s just a fun reference to a stupid movie…

AITA?

Joking around with coworkers is really common, and it usually helps make the workplace better. Sometimes things can go too far, which seems to be the case here. That being said, he should have just been asked to stop and given a warning, not fired immediately.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a man who wants to report a coworker to HR over unprofessional behavior following a missed promotion.

Maybe the people in the comments disagree, let’s take a look.

This person says he is a bully.

Yeah, that is part of the joke.

I wonder if he was given a warning.

This commenter says he is a nightmare employee.

This person thinks the lyrics make it inexcusable.

Sometimes a joke can go too far, and that seems to be the case here. While he deserved a warning before getting fired, some companies aren’t willing to put up with anything that can seem like harassment.

Hopefully, this can be a good learning opportunity about the workplace. You can never assume that other people think things are funny. Just focus on your job and get things done.