Imagine being in a company meeting with all the supervisors and employees when one employee asks a question. What would you do if a supervisor responded by yelling at this employee until she cried simply because she asked a question?

In this story, one employee at a factory is in this situation, and she decides to report the supervisor to HR. She finds out that this is far from the first time this supervisor has been reported for yelling at an employee.

Unfortunately, the coworker didn’t appreciate this employee’s help at all. In fact, she didn’t see it as helpful.

Keep reading for all the details.

AITA? Reported a shift supervisor for verbally abusing co-worker.

I work in a factory, on the floor as production.

Monday, we were in a ‘all hands meeting’ when a supervisor from a different department started screaming at this woman because she asked a safety question, he got in her face, like pointing at her yelling, “You don’t worry about safety, you don’t worry about anything. We will tell you what to worry about!”

No one said anything and you could tell everyone was super uncomfortable.

The co-worker didn’t say anything the rest of the meeting and simply stared at the floor.

OP went to HR.

Mom raised her kids to have self respect, my previous job was also a union shop.

Right after the meeting I went directly to HR and filed a complaint about the situation.

I later discovered this hasn’t been the first time this particular supervisor has yelled at other employees at work, in front of co-workers, to the point they were crying on the floor. All of them women, none of them from his department.

Her coworker didn’t seem too happy that OP reported this situation.

To make a long story short, HR ended up having an investigation, which included calling the supervisor, me, the person being abused and several witnesses in to discuss this problem, individually.

My supervisor, who also happens to be my neighbor that plays Dungeons and Dragons with me and who I buy weed from (it’s amazing!) later told me that the supervisor in question got suspended for two weeks without pay.

Anyways, my co-worker got out of her meeting, she made a beeline for me and started yelling at me, telling me that I had no right to go to HR and that what happened makes her look bad, like she ‘told’ on the supervisor, so now she has a target on her back.

I apologized that I caused her distress, but that she shouldn’t be enabling this kind of behavior. That he wasn’t effecting just her, but multiple people. And even if he hadn’t yelled at her, if she saw something like that, she should go to HR to make this a better workplace for everyone.

OP was only trying to help.

I also told her if she had anymore problems, I’d completely back her up, because in the past I’ve had issues with this guy as well.

She called me a jerk and a piece of garbage and that I didn’t understand anything.

She hasn’t talked to me since, which sucks because I enjoyed working with her.

Am I a jerk? I have to be honest, no matter what the response is here, I won’t stop defending co-workers, but I’d like perspective, perhaps I could have done this better than how I handled it.

Yikes! I’m shocked at how the coworker reacted for having someone stand up for her!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who rejects a low contract offer and leaves the company instead.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person makes a good point.

Another person is on OP’s side.

The coworker shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

Nobody thinks OP did anything wrong.

The coworker obviously doesn’t want to be on her supervisor’s bad side for reporting him, but she didn’t report him. OP did. And management agrees that what he did was wrong. The supervisor shouldn’t be able to get away with yelling at employees. If nobody reports him, his behavior will just continue.

OP did the right thing by standing up for a coworker.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a hotel guest who complained about noise from an event, then reported the employee who agreed with him.