Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Crap day at work. Have I been stupid and cocked this right up?

85 replies

VinoTime · 16/11/2016 22:01

At work today finishing up in one department before moving on to start helping out in another. A male colleague that I'm friendly with suddenly ran up behind me, grabbed onto my face and wiped the wet sleeves of his filthy outdoor work coat all over me. His department works outside so they have to wear waterproof high vis coats - they don't have their own individual coats, they get worn by any member of staff who needs them and pegged up in the warehouse when not being used. They don't get cleaned very often and frankly, they're disgusting. This member of staff knows that I have some issues with cleanliness and germs. It's not debilitating and I wouldn't have said it ever negatively impacts my day-to-day life, but it is 'obvious' enough for most people at work to recognise that I can be a bit particular at times.

Suffice to say that when this person, who I have always counted as a friend, grabbed my face this morning I felt myself panic quite a lot. I became quite tearful for a number of reasons - the thought of all the germs on my face, the thought of having 5 hours to go before I could get home and wash my face properly, the terror I felt at being grabbed and surprised (I was sexually assaulted as a teen and don't always do well with male contact, though obviously nobody at works knows about this), and feeling generally quite hurt that he'd done it knowing I have a few ...issues. My knee jerk reaction was to shout "What are you dong? Don't ever do that to me again!" quite loudly and also very forcefully. Totally out of character for me being the usually too nice wet blanket that I am. He was evidently taken aback by my reaction and tried to say that the coat was clean and that I should calm down, at which point I yelled that that was no excuse and he had no right to do that to me. He skulked off looking a bit bemused and I went to the toilets and burst into tears, feeling like my heart was actually going to come through my chest.

I spent the rest of the day with my makeup smeared, scratching at my face (which has cracked and bled in several places) and feeling very jumpy. As soon as I got myself cleaned up and calm enough I went to start helping out in the other department, at which point my manager, who I get on very well with, instantly asked me what was wrong. Said manager hired me several years ago and we have a good working relationship. He knows me better than anyone else at work and after some pressing, I explained what had happened. He became quite angry on my behalf, fully understanding how the situation would make me feel. He asked me if I wanted him to have words with the colleague, I said no and that I'd dealt with it. He told me to take 10 and go have a cup of tea, which I did, and then I powered on with work.

At the end of my shift as I was leaving the building, my colleague approached, got quite in my face and said "If you've got a fucking problem in future, come and speak to me about it. Don't get XXXXXX to do it for you and don't bother speaking to me again." Sad

I can only assume my manager felt strongly enough about the situation that he did in fact, go and have words with him. And now my colleague is upset with me. I couldn't help my reaction and I can't help how I feel. I wish I was the kind of person who could just laugh that off as a joke, but I can't. I don't find it funny. I think it's cruel to play practical jokes on people you know have certain limitations, and who will ultimately struggle with it afterwards. At the same time, I fully recognise that these are my limitations and I wonder if I've seriously messed up today? Was I wrong or unreasonable to call him on it and should I have just kept my mouth shut, both to him and to my manager? I didn't say anything with the aim of getting him into trouble Sad

OP posts:
AddToBasket · 16/11/2016 22:43

OP, it sounds as though he didn't read the situation well. He behaved badly, weirdly, and then was angry that you hadn't addressed it with him.

I can actually understand the bit about him being upset you didn't speak to him. It sounds as if you guys would normally be friends - he maybe thinks you would/should be able to talk to him directly.

I don't understand why you were scratching your face, though.

DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 16/11/2016 22:49

I would be horrified if someone jogged up to me and grabbed my face, eek. And then to yell at you after being confronted by the manager - that colleague got it seriously wrong at least twice. Agree with others that you should tell your manager that he confronted you for "telling".

How are you feeling now?

HumphreyCobblers · 16/11/2016 22:49

You dealt with this completely appropriately. I am sorry he did that to you.

As pp have said, you should report his later aggressive comments to you as well. He has compounded his initial error by doing this and it needs to be flagged up.

EveOnline2016 · 16/11/2016 22:50

My husband wouldn't even act like that to me never mind someone I work with.

You was right to speak out.

I doubt he would have done it to a male member of staff.

Cherrysoup · 16/11/2016 22:53

He physically assaulted you then verbally abused you? I'd be putting in a formal complaint, it is absolutely not on to feel upset by colleagues. He has been an idiot.

WicksEnd · 16/11/2016 22:57

You are most definitely not over reacting, what an absolute arsehole 😡
Please don't let him get away with it, speak o your manager about him approaching you. What a wanker.

slenderisthenight · 16/11/2016 22:57

You did nothing wrong and you sound like a lovely person.

His behaviour to you as you left work was worryingly bullying and I really do feel that you have no option but to go to your boss and explain what happened there. Then, perhaps, your boss can give you an opportunity to explain (in your boss's presence) that you didn't 'tell' on him but that you were very upset and your boss asked you why.

YeOldMa · 16/11/2016 22:57

He doesn't sound like 'a friend' at all. A good friend probably wouldn't have done it in the first place but if they did, they would have immediately apologised when they saw your reaction. To have another go at you for exercising your right to speak about being assaulted is not acceptable and is bullying behaviour. It sounds like this relationship is fine as long as you tow the line but if you object to anything, it becomes a threatening one. Speak to your boss in the morning and let them know what happened otherwise this clown will keep on being intimidating if he thinks he can get away with it.

PilkoPumpPants · 16/11/2016 23:01

I'm not remotely excusing his behaviour here btw, he was completely out of order.

But from your last post about him, it sounds like he may have a crush on you. If this is the case I'd imagine you'll have an apology from him in the next few days as it clearly is out of character for him. I think he felt like an absolute idiot for not realizing acting like that would upset you and handled it very badly.

I hope your ok soon, please don't feel guilty about it, none of this is your fault and you did the right thing telling your boss. I really hope you get an apology tomorrow. He acted incredibly shitty.Flowers

needmymouthsewnup · 16/11/2016 23:02

Going against the grain slightly here, but from what you've said in your subsequent posts, it seems like he actually quite liked you (not saying necessarily romantically, but enough to be thoughtful of you and your issues) and I wonder if what he did was supposed to be in a jokey way, which went wrong. Perhaps he then felt bad and after you spoke to your boss was upset you hadn't gone to him first? Not saying what he did was ok, but I wonder if a better approach, rather than going back to your boss again, would be to take him to one side and just talk to him about it, and explain properly? Depends if you want to try and salvage the friendship or not I guess.

Obsidian77 · 16/11/2016 23:02

You haven't messed up op, there's no way you should have to tolerate this. Please speak to your manager again, your colleague's first action was stupid but the aggressive follow-up was completely out of order.

YelloDraw · 16/11/2016 23:02

I can actually understand the bit about him being upset you didn't speak to him. It sounds as if you guys would normally be friends - he maybe thinks you would/should be able to talk to him directly.

You are minimizing.

If I upset someone I thought was a friend, so badly that their manger had to come have words with me - I would be extremely apologetic to my friend and be genuinely sorry I had upset them. I would not shout at them for dobbing me in... which is basically what he did.

redexpat · 16/11/2016 23:03

He is angry at himself for misjudging, embarrassed by the bollocking and took it out on you. Please report it back to your manager.

CocktailQueen · 16/11/2016 23:06

Yanbu. Your colleague was in the wrong. He was especially wrong not to apologise at the end of the day, because he already knew he had upset you.

However, I think you are minimising the effect your anxiety has on your day to day working life. It's not normal not to accept a sweet in case someone else has touched the packet; to scratch at your face till it bleeds; and why was your makeup smeared all day? I hope you can get some help for this.

blueshoes · 16/11/2016 23:07

If you say your colleague is normally nice, what he did on both occasions was abusive and threatening, the first physically, the second verbally. I would not feel comfortable in his presence again, and I don't blame you.

I would be tempted to make a formal HR complaint, just to put it on the record.

Do you have to work with him normally?

AskBasil · 16/11/2016 23:14

Please report his further outrageous behaviour to your boss.

His later behaviour was even worse than the initial event.

The first incident was a totally inappropriate way for him to behave but could possibly be forgiven as a crass misjudgement (though that would actually be more charitable than I would be inclined to be). The second incident is a very clear cut case of workplace bullying. He was in the wrong, someone senior to him spoke to him about it and he decided to act in a threatening way towards you as a result.

Frankly if I were your manager I would be demanding HR involvement and a warning for this guy. His behaviour is not acceptable in the workplace, it's beyond the pale.

And no, he's not a nice guy. He's been nice to you all this time because he's never had a reason not to be and you've never done anything that might have irritated him before. I sometimes irritate my colleagues and they're still nice to me, because they're genuinely nice people. Nice people are nice to you even when you annoy them. He's not nice. He does nice because we all do in the workplace because doing nasty tends to get you isolated. But underneath, he's actually pretty nasty. A nice man would have been really upset that he'd inadvertently upset you so much, that your manager had had to speak to you about it. Get the idea that he's nice, right out of your head.

bringbacksideburns · 16/11/2016 23:15

He should have taken the opportunity at the end of the day to come up and say sorry for upsetting you. If he knew of your anxiety round cleanliness he knew exactly what he was doing so has no right to get aggressive with you.
I'd leave him to it.

ThatsWotSheSaid · 16/11/2016 23:17

My guess is that he didn't make the connection between your germ issues and his 'prank' until he saw your reaction. But he has been a total wanker in everything he did since that moment so unless you get a very big apology you should cut the friendship off IMO.

Ohyesiam · 16/11/2016 23:29

You didn't over react, you responded. And you clearly did tell him that to his face. He sounds embarrassed and defensive, ie, knows he was heavy handed. If he's a friend worth having he c will apologise.

Hold your head up high, you've done nothing wrong.

SquirrelWatcher · 16/11/2016 23:33

I'm a retail manager and I'd absolutely want to know about the follow up comments! Our store has a fairly misogynistic culture problem and this sort of behaviour is part of that - don't know if it's your workplace is similar. Men thinking that there entitled to touch/grab women and then say "we're friends" as an excuse.

( If you work in a big west end retail store that has been being painted yellow back of house today, you do work in my store!!)

BoopTheSnoot · 16/11/2016 23:37

YANBU. Nobody has the right to put their hands on you like that.

Pallisers · 16/11/2016 23:39

At the end of my shift as I was leaving the building, my colleague approached, got quite in my face and said "If you've got a fucking problem in future, come and speak to me about it. Don't get XXXXXX to do it for you and don't bother speaking to me again." sad

Report him.

he was out of order for the first incident and he is completely out of order with this second one.

He is not a nice guy and not a friend. If he made a silly mistake on the first incident (hard to imagine) then his response should have been "OP, I'm so sorry"

When manager approached him he should have said "I am so sorry I don't know what came over me"

And then if he did approach you again he should have said 'just wanted to tell you again how sorry I am"

He is an aggressive asshole and you should have nothing more to do with him. And I bet work are thinking the same thing.

Lorelei76 · 16/11/2016 23:41

This sounds like assault, should be treated as gross misconduct.
He grabbed your face and wiped his coat on you? Basically rubbed against you? I don't get how he wasn't fired on the spot. Have I misunderstood?
I'm very sorry this happened to you.

Aghast at the poster saying he likes you, wtf?

Cucumber5 · 16/11/2016 23:43

I think the first incidence was just badly judged horse play on his part and he probably doesn't get the germ thing PROPERLY. The second was a reaction to his boss having a right go at him and him not understanding the issue fully. context is everything. If he is genuinely nice but misjudged things, fair doos. If he was pushing boundaries inappropriately report him.

annandale · 16/11/2016 23:44

I would write a record of what happened with dates and names, email it to yourself and then take a few days to think about it all.

Your colleague has been completely out of order and none of this is your fault. However, it is never a good idea to do things in a rush.