An Employee Lied About Their Argument—So He Reported Her to HR and Cost Her a Major Promotion
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Workplace arguments can get messy fast when someone twists a heated comment into something far more serious.
One employee gets accused of harassment, but when witnesses back his version, would you let it go or file your own complaint?
The dispute suddenly threatens a coworker’s promotion after HR starts looking into whether she lied about what happened.
Check out this culmination below.
AITA for “causing” a coworker to get written up by HR
I (33M) work at an office job with lots of different people.
The other day in the break room, I was speaking with a coworker about the student loan system in the US.
But the conversation was soon hijacked.
Another coworker (36F), who was eavesdropping, interrupted us to say that only people like her who have kids should get a say in what is taught in schools.
Not wanting to get into it, I tried to explain to her that wasn’t even what we were talking about.
She just wouldn’t let it go, so he fired back.
She kept replying that because I don’t ever plan on having kids, I shouldn’t have any opinion on the educational system.
This really annoyed me, even though it made no sense as an argument, and I told her verbatim, “I’m not less of a person because I didn’t pop brats out of me.”
She got really flustered and left.
Turns out, she was prepared to blow this whole thing out of proportion.
The next day I got called into our manager’s office where an HR rep and the coworker were waiting.
The coworker went on to say I harassed her by saying I told her she should have her tubes tied and that she shouldn’t be “shooting a thousand kids out her ******.”
So it was time for him to file a complaint of his own.
I was very annoyed and explained that was certainly not what I said.
My story was corroborated by three other employees.
Here is where I may be the AH: I, in turn, filed an HR complaint against this coworker for lying about me.
She’s finally starting to face some consequences for her actions, but he’s catching some fire too.
Now she is under investigation, and this looks like it might impact a promotion she is up for.
People in the office are saying I should have let it go and that it was over the line to report her that close to a promotion.
I just feel it wouldn’t be an issue if she didn’t lie.
AITA?
She made the false accusation, so now she has to deal with the fallout.
What did Reddit think?
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This commenter shudders to think what may have happened if other people hadn’t been around.
It seems like HR was actually on the right side of this conflict.
This woman should definitely be nowhere near a leadership position.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who quiet quit, then quit for real, following a no-overtime mandate.
She really made her own bed with this one.
Three coworkers backed his account, undercutting the much harsher version she had reported to HR.
He then filed a complaint of his own, leaving her under investigation just as a promotion was being considered.
If a promotion depends on nobody checking your story, HR was probably going to become a problem.
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