Imagine working at the same company as your sibling. That could be kind of fun if you get along.

What wouldn’t be fun is having to deal with your sibling’s annoying manager all the time!

In today’s story, one woman is fed up with her brother’s annoying manager sending her messages to give to him. She doesn’t want to be treated like a messenger, but the manager won’t stop.

She’s considering blocking the manager’s number, but she’s worried that could backfire.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for ignoring a manager’s texts (and WIBTA for blocking his number)?

Me (26F) and my brother Mike (24M) work in different areas of the same company. Each area has its own manager.

My manager is great—respectful of my time and boundaries.

Mike’s manager, Gary (around 45–50M), is… not.

Here’s the problem with Gary.

He’s a fun, slightly ditzy guy, but he has a habit of texting me when he needs Mike to cover shifts.

This started years ago when Mike turned off notifications for our work app and rarely answered calls.

Since I’m on my phone a lot and my brother is chronically offline, Gary started messaging me instead.

Mike had to fight for his job, but he sounds like a valuable employee.

Mike had to leave during COVID for family reasons, came back later, and had to fight for a wage still lower than his coworkers’.

He’s also the only one in his area who knows how to do everything and ends up stuck with the worst shifts.

Eventually, he told management he’d quit unless he got a raise and a more consistent schedule. Mike asked not to be messaged about extra shifts, saying they could talk to him in person due to anxiety.

They agreed.

It was good at first, but then the messages started.

He got a raise ($0.50 less than he asked for) but stayed because they initially respected the new schedule.

That lasted two weeks.

Then Gary started asking me again.

And here’s the kicker: since the rehire, Gary always messages me first, and only me, clearly assuming I’ll pass the message along in person since Mike doesn’t check his phone.

She doesn’t like being stuck in the middle.

I get that now hearing about the anxiety conversation they had, but it’s so annoying. I’ve told my coworkers and Gary himself that I hate being the middleman.

I’m not Mike’s assistant.

But yesterday, while I was working, Gary texted, “Can Mike work this weekend?”

I said I’d pass it along, assuming he’d messaged Mike too.

Then today: “So can he work?”

I’ve ignored that message so far because I’m not even scheduled until next week.

She can’t take these messages from Gary anymore!

What really got me was when Gary messaged me while I was on vacation 2 months ago, literally at the airport, asking about Mike.

I looked back through our texts, and since Mike’s rehire, every message conversation started by Gary has been about Mike.

So yes, Mike should probably just quit, but AITA for ignoring Gary? And WIBTA if I blocked Gary’s number?

I’ve already told him directly I’m not his messenger. I don’t think quoting Hermione Granger at this point (“I’m not a bloody owl!”) would work either.

Gary isn’t her manager. I can’t see any reason why it would be a bad idea to block his number. It’s not her job to relay messages to her brother.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

He’s harassing her.

This person offers several suggestions.

Here’s another suggestion that would probably work.

She shouldn’t lead him to believe she’ll pass on any messages.

It’s simple, really.

She should report the manager to HR.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.