Communication is important in any workplace, but nobody is perfect. Sometimes there will be misunderstandings about things. This includes things like having someone approved for a day off, but the rest of the office not knowing about it.

What would you do if you were on your day off when a coworker contacted you, upset because you weren’t in the office? Then, when you finally agreed to go into the office, she just locked herself in a conference room crying, and now she won’t talk to you?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, and he is wondering if he did anything wrong. At the very least, he wants to make sure that the normally laid-back environment in the office goes back to normal.

Personally, I don’t see what he did wrong, but read through the full story below and see what you think.

AITA for making my coworker cry?

I (24M) work in a very small office with three coworkers: Jacob (21M), Adriana (23F, our lead), and Lia (24F).

Lia is friends with both my sister and Adriana.

Our office is pretty laid back. One of our responsibilities is tutoring students, and students are usually assigned based on who’s available.

Recently we got a student that raised a lot of red flags. Leadership was informed, but we still had to work with them.

No big deal, the scheduling should work out fine.

I gave the student availability for Thursday and Friday.

Later, I realized Friday was my sister’s graduation, so I told Adriana I wouldn’t be coming in that day.

She said it was fine and that coverage was available.

Lia was standing right next to her when I said it.

Something weird is going on.

Thursday came and the student never showed up. No call, no message, nothing.

That isn’t unusual for us.

On Friday, while I was at a buffet with my family celebrating my sister’s graduation, Lia called me twice.

I couldn’t answer, so I texted her asking what was up.

This seems like simple miscommunication.

She asked if I was coming in at 1 PM.

I reminded her that I’d already told everyone I wasn’t working that day.

She sent me a screenshot of the email chain showing the availability I’d originally given the student.

Since I’d already cleared my absence with Adriana, I was annoyed. I asked if they couldn’t handle it themselves.

If he was approved to take the day off, this is not his problem.

Lia then sent me a long passive-aggressive message saying the student needed proper instruction, that she couldn’t teach the other subjects, and that she didn’t want me “deflecting” by saying I’d already told everyone I wasn’t coming in.

She also said the student had been calling repeatedly.

I asked if the student was actually there.

They weren’t.

If she didn’t want him to come in, she shouldn’t have told him he needed to be there.

I ended up folding and drove to work after the buffet anyway.

When I got there, Lia saw me and immediately ran into the office and shut the door behind her.

Adriana was in the lobby and asked why I was there.

After I explained, she went into the office. A few minutes later I could hear Lia crying.

This is what happens when you tell someone they need to be there.

Apparently she was upset that I came in because she felt she’d ruined my sister’s graduation celebration by making me leave.

While I was driving over, she had texted me not to come because the student had stopped responding, but I hadn’t seen the message.

This is understandable. She was having a difficult day.

Afterward, Adriana told me Lia had gotten overwhelmed. Her lunch had spilled earlier, the student had been calling repeatedly, and she was stressed about an upcoming audit. According to Adriana, the final straw was me showing up.

What confused both me and Adriana was why Lia didn’t just hand the situation off to Adriana, who was fully capable of handling it.

What does Lia have to be upset about? She was the one who handled the situation poorly.

Fast forward a few days and the office atmosphere is weird.

Lia barely talks to me, avoids me, won’t make eye contact, and has made passive-aggressive comments when I’m not around.

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Adriana and Jacob still treat me exactly the same.

I don’t see what he could have done differently.

Adriana thinks we both owe each other an apology. Me for showing up without checking my messages and Lia for overreacting.

Did I do something wrong here? I’m not really sure how to proceed.

AITA?

No, he did nothing wrong. To me, it seems like Lia had a bad day and overreacted, and now she is embarrassed about it and doesn’t know how to move on. Hopefully, this will all blow over.

Take a look at what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say about it.

I 100% agree with this commenter.

Yup, her crying is on her.

This person says she has nothing to apologize for.

The coworker just seems overwhelmed. That is her problem.

Lia has some growing up to do.

Lia seems very immature and is dealing with a mistake she made very poorly. She needs to learn to regulate her own emotions at work and not take them out on others.

I don’t see what this person could possibly have to apologize for, honestly.

At the end of the day, this type of thing happens sometimes at work, and everyone just has to move on. Nobody was intentionally mean, so as long as Lia doesn’t make things weird, it should be fine.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who got promoted, then realized they set her replacement up to fail.