Who was in the wrong here?

I think everyone needs to grow up.

Not necessarily being biased could make someone unreliable! A bias would be a specific type of unreliability.

An ‘unreliable narrator’ is different to a biased narrator!!

It was nice of B to actually do it as the leaver had jokingly said you owe me a speech.
A should have gotten over it when that was pointed out so A is a twat.

I suspect we have an unreliable narrator here!! Maybe B was being a bit of an attention seeking dick, sort of demeaning A in tbe process. And A/their colleagues/friends are annoyed by this. (Is this tbe first such incident of friction between B and A). However, professionalism needs to be resumed and hopefully it’ll be water under the bridge after Easter

Honestly this sounds completely bonkers to me. I left my job last summer after many years there and various people spoke. It was all very low key. A in particular sounds tricky and dramatic. But how on earth can the workplace be split over this? It’s schoolyard stuff. Is everyone very bored at work or something? It’s just so silly and i think it reflects badly on everyone who’s let themselves get caught up in this.

Yes since when is only one person allowed to make a speech at any do? If someone feels close enough to the person leaving, getting married, whatever, they’re allowed to say a few words without it taking away from any other’s speech

A is being unreasonable. Other people are allowed to speak.

YANBU
I think someone else making a little speech is lovely as long s not belittling or being rude about them.

Reminds me of the scene from the film bridesmaids!

You say the leaver joked with B about B owning them a speech. B went on and did that speech.

I think we’re all falling to understand A’s problem? Was there a pre discussion about who would do the speech and everyone agreed A would do it- and then B did something anyway? It’s irritating when people don’t stick to the plan, but not enough to fall out over.

A is pathetic. But also, B IS an attention seeker.

Sounds like A needs to be the centre of attention and is an absolute pain in the arse , there absolutely no reason other colleagues couldn't do a speech too and quite honestly I'm baffled why they haven't been pulled in for a warning since this has spilled over to the work place .

All seems very childish to me 🤷‍♀️
it’s a leaving do, surely people can pipe up what they want? Not like a wedding or funeral where there is a set service.
Ive only experienced speeches in weddings and funerals where it’s all very formal. As a retired teacher , all other speeches have been very informal. Sure the head might give a speech about the colleague leaving…but neither would any head I’ve experienced, been upset by another head/colleague/friend piping up after. Why would they? It’s a celebration of someone leaving and moving on, it’s not an order of service.

ok I wouldn’t do it myself but equally I wouldn’t think anything of someone else doing it. Maybe schools are a different kettle of fish.

The person leaving said to B that they owed them a speech. Later, B gave them a little speech. B is therefore not out of order in any manner, or attention seeking.

A, on the other hand, sounds like a childish twat.

If B announced their speech as "A's speech was shit, here's the real one baby", then I understand why A would be annoyed.

If B wanted to say their own words about their colleague/friend, then A needs to calm down and stop being ridiculous.

nothing wrong with more than 1 person giving a speech, people have different levels of ‘friendliness’ in an office IME. I had a boss who would have been A & cross at B & divided the office, she would also have been B, not wanting people to forget she was ‘important’ too. So if it wasn’t that type of ‘don’t forget me!’ scenario A is in the wrong

I'm really struggling to work out how on earth anyone could possibly be on A's side, even more so people who were actually there! It's completely bizarre. Does A kick off if more than one person makes a speech at a wedding as well?

Did A do a collective speech on behalf of all staff, or a personal speech? Did B give the impression that they thought they were closer to the leaver?

Was there a dynamic between leaver, A&B?

Who would you have thought should have given a speech if only one could, given their working relationships?

yanbu. Regardless of the reason why B felt they needed to do a second speech, A grossly overreacted. Was there drink involved? I’m thinking maybe the second speech was more of a rambling by someone fuelled by alcohol?

The person leaving did jokingly say to B “you owe me a speech” and B replied with “I haven’t had enough to drink yet!”

It sounds like either there was a genuine expectation or B thought there was an expectation of them giving a speech too. Unless B was really trying to one-up A, or it was like that speech scene from Bridesmaids, then I am on B’s side. There was no “official” speech agreed, it’s nice for people to care enough that there was more than one speech, and screaming at someone for doing a nice little speech towards the end of the night sounds like an overreaction. I would suggest to A to speak to the colleague who left about it because if they were happy with two speeches then it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks

Chirrah luv. Let us know which slug wins

Chirrah luv

Is everyone involved about fourteen? Surely no ordinarily well-adjusted people who are old enough to hold down a job would say more than ‘I’d rather watch two slugs climb a wall than listen to any more of this’?