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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have asked colleague to pay for my coat?

282 replies

GreenSnot · 09/03/2022 13:30

Office based job. Colleague was flying around the office on a wheeled chair on Monday, I’d asked her to stop twice but she carried on. Then she ended up wheeling over my coat which was on the back of my chair (but partly on the floor). The coat got tangled in the wheels and ripped. It was a Barbour coat so not cheap but not massively expensive either. I said “you should pay something towards me getting a new one” and she said “oh chill out, it shouldn’t have been on the floor”. I said “you shouldn’t be flying around on the office on the chair!” Anyway another colleague charmed in and said she’d knocked a dent into the filing cabinet last week after crashing into it and she should offer to pay for that too.

Now a number of colleagues have taken her side and have started taking the piss like dropping a tea bag and shouting “someone needs to pay for that” etc etc

Was I unreasonable to ask her to pay towards my coat?

OP posts:
TolkiensFallow · 09/03/2022 15:45

Raise it with your manager - they might pay out of petty cash and bollock her for inappropriate behaviour

HELLITHURT · 09/03/2022 15:46

She sounds irritating, but the coat shouldn't have been on the floor.

Nosetickle · 09/03/2022 15:46

YANBU

I always put my coat on the back of my chair at work, didn’t realise this was a bad thing to do until I read this thread! My coat is not long and doesn’t drape on the floor. If this was the case I’d probably hang it somewhere else. But still not your fault OP, the fault of the person being an idiot on the office chair!

TricksAnd · 09/03/2022 15:47

Can you post a picture of the damage?
I'd expect her to pay something

girlmom21 · 09/03/2022 15:47

@TolkiensFallow

Raise it with your manager - they might pay out of petty cash and bollock her for inappropriate behaviour
Most companies don't have petty cash
Jockolgy · 09/03/2022 15:48

@Munchcrip

Are you working in a nursery? Are your colleagues 3 year old kids?
This …absolutely nothing wrong with having a laugh but your colleagues sound very immature and unprofessional!
RatherBeRiding · 09/03/2022 15:48

If there is nowhere to hang coats so you have no choice but to hang them on back of chairs - that's an issue to take up with management. If she has damaged your coat because there's nowhere else to hang it - that's an issue to take up with management.

I'd certainly not be "chilled out" about that - she sounds ridiculous!

Thewindwhispers · 09/03/2022 15:48

Disrupting your work by crashing about thenpffice like a fournyear old, even though she’d been asked to stop, damaging your (and office) stuff, then refusing to apologise and getting her frinds to mock you? Sounds like workplace bullying to me, I’d raise it with management. There is zero chance of her giving you any money (although you were reasonable to ask) so I wouldn’t spend much energy on that, but her bullying you is what needs sorting out.

shssandhr · 09/03/2022 15:50

I think she should pay something towards it.
It shouldn't have been half on the floor as that's dangerous too but she shouldn't have been flying around on the office chair when she's supposed to be working.

(I'm not entirely innocent as I have had office chair races in the past with colleagues in a primary school in the school hall after work which we really shouldn't have been doing... but we never did it in working hours or in places where others were working after hours or where there wasn't enough space...)

Alwayswonderedwhy · 09/03/2022 15:50

Yanbu

AchillesPoirot · 09/03/2022 15:51

You shouldn’t have a coat trailing on the ground.

She shouldn’t be twirling round on a chair.

50/50 responsibility.

Put your coat away in future.

SheldonesqueTheBstard · 09/03/2022 15:51

She should pay half. And your employer should put up coat hooks.

The childish behaviour from her and the other colleagues in the aftermath though?

That shit needs to be stopped.

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 09/03/2022 15:52

How close was she to you? Either she was dangerously close enough to pick up your coat or it was lying on the floor.

How can it have been half on the chair? Is it a long coat? Low chairs?

Do you also keep your bags by your feet too? So she very easily could have ridden over your bag and broke your phone?

Honestly I'd address this with your manager/HR and ask for there to be some coat racks (cheap as chips to buy) and some comeuppance for her behaviour

TheOriginalEmu · 09/03/2022 15:52

@Onlyforcake

From a H&S view you warned her. But they are right it shouldn't be left on the floor, why leave a coat on the floor?! Saying that why the fuck is she pissing about?
It wasn’t on the floor, it was on the back of the chair, probably too long to be off the floor completely so some of it was touching the floor. This is common in many offices, we never had any choice in my work place until a new office was built and with covid we aren’t allowed to use the cloak room currently anyway.
Schoolchoicesucks · 09/03/2022 15:53

It's not great to hang your coat on the back of your chair - it is a potential trip hazard, but also it will get creased and mucky if it's so long it hangs partly on the floor.

I may not have immediately jumped to "you need to pay for that", but would be very pissed off with her and would have expected her to be mortified and to offer to contribute.

The others who are chiming in with the paying for dropped tea bags sound like idiots.

Time to start looking for another job where you can work with grown ups (and have somewhere to hang your coat)?

Rosehugger · 09/03/2022 15:53

She sounds like a dick.

CapMarvel · 09/03/2022 16:02

Since when is a coat hanging on a back of a chair a trip hazard? FFS.

Absolutely get the dickhead to pay for any repair.

girlmom21 · 09/03/2022 16:04

@CapMarvel

Since when is a coat hanging on a back of a chair a trip hazard? FFS.

Absolutely get the dickhead to pay for any repair.

Of course it's a trip hazard if it's dangling on the floor, same as a computer wire or your bag's handle...
shrunkenhead · 09/03/2022 16:07

Your coat should've been hung up in the cloakroom. She probably shouldn't have been arseing about but surely you're allowed some fun, even in an office environment?! We used to do all sorts of daft things on a Friday afternoon when the buses had knocked off early when I worked in one.
It was an accident. I wouldn't have asked her to pay for it. They are being u if making fun of you though.
Just hang your coat up in future.

Butchyrestingface · 09/03/2022 16:09

If there's no coat rack or cloakroom I'd be inclined to make the suggestion to your manager that the office should get one. And tell them why.

Was your colleague WFH until very recently?

SheldonesqueTheBstard · 09/03/2022 16:13

Trip hazard if there is no room and you have to squeeze by.

Not a trip hazard if there is room to play waltzers/dodgems on a chair. And if the colleague is managing to do that, then there is room.

Does anyone have the need to be that close to your chair while you are working? Space or no? It isn’t as though it is a six foot drape.

I’d be hanging my coat on my chair if there was nowhere else to put it.

DameHelena · 09/03/2022 16:13

She should pay, but she won't. I'd raise it with your manager, both from the angle of where to put coats so they don't get damaged, and from the H&S point of view. She sounds like a tit.

Momijin · 09/03/2022 16:14

She should absolutely pay for it. Silly cow

MissMaple82 · 09/03/2022 16:18

You are both in their wrong. Chalk it up to experience and hang you coat up properly

strawberryapricotpie · 09/03/2022 16:18

@shrunkenhead

Your coat should've been hung up in the cloakroom. She probably shouldn't have been arseing about but surely you're allowed some fun, even in an office environment?! We used to do all sorts of daft things on a Friday afternoon when the buses had knocked off early when I worked in one. It was an accident. I wouldn't have asked her to pay for it. They are being u if making fun of you though. Just hang your coat up in future.
There's having a laugh now and then at work, and then there's rolling around the room on a chair like a five-year-old.