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Sometimes choosing your words wisely can really go a long way!

This retail store worker shares how his encounter with a homeless employee went down.

Check out the full story.

AITA For telling my homeless coworker he’s uncivilized?

I (29m) work at a retail phone store, we recently hired one of our friendly regulars (45m) who happens to be homeless. He’s a nice guy and a friend of the store so we were happy to help.

This is where it gets a bit tricky…

Problem is, every morning he goes and gets food donations from local churches/shelters, he then brings several boxes of this food to the store, decides what he wants to keep and dumps the rest in the store trash.

So now our trash can is full of food debris, and we already had a roach problem which has become much worse. As well he treats our back room like a kitchen, cooking full meals in there, storing food and washing dishes in the bathroom.

Bathroom sink is full of food debris and clogged, store trash is completely full of spoiled food and it smells.

That’s INSANE!

I asked him today if he could please clean up before he left (as if he doesn’t it’s technically my problem since as the closer it’s my job to clean the store before EOD).

He cleaned.. somewhat, I went to look things over and there’s still food debris everywhere, spoiled food in bags and our employee fridge is full of random groceries he was donated.

I got upset and asked if he usually cleans up after himself.

He was questioning hiring him!

He said he usually doesn’t have to. At which point, frustrated, I said “I understand you’re homeless but that’s no excuse to be so uncivilized”.

He didn’t say anything after that on his way but I could tell I wounded him more than I intended. AITA?

YIKES! That sounds bad!

Why would this guy not take care of basic hygiene at work?

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

Exactly! This user believes being homeless has nothing to do with workplace rules.

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This user thinks there are other ways to tell someone that they need to be more organized.

This user thinks this guy had to just politely ask!

This user knows what’s happening here…

This homeless person shares what it is like.

Everybody here needs to be kinder!

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Author

Sarrah Murtaza

Sarrah Murtaza | Contributing Writer, Life & Drama

Sarrah Murtaza is a contributing writer for TwistedSifter specializing in human interest stories, internet culture, and interpersonal drama. With nearly six years of experience in digital publishing, she excels at identifying compelling, community-driven conversations and elevating them into highly engaging narratives.

Sarrah brings a unique, narrative-focused approach to her journalism. Drawing on her professional background as a screenwriter and director, she has a sharp editorial eye for human conflict and motivation. This allows her to transform everyday online dilemmas and relationship dynamics into well-structured, empathetic stories that resonate deeply with readers.

As a dedicated remote professional, Sarrah uses her location independence to travel the world, bringing a diverse and exploratory perspective to her writing. When she isn't crafting stories, she can usually be found exploring a new city or working on her latest creative project.

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