To have asked colleague to pay for my coat?

[GreenSnot]

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?

What an immature twat!! Yes they should be paying to replace your coat

@JayAlfredPrufrock, remind me of the detail of the ripped barbour coat thread, which I remember being attractively batshit...? Was it in the context of a friend who was staying with the OP, and being the guest/lodger from hell, or am I mixing up two threads?

A Barbour doar may not be ridiculously expensive to you, it certainly is to many people. I wouldn't be able to afford to pay you the whole thing. I might offer to pay you in installments of £20 a week.

Your coat shouldn't be trailing on the floor though.

Doar? Coat

Our workplace took away communal coat stands when the pandemic hit and asked us to put them on our chairs to avoid people touching each others items, coats even if not long can slip down through the day so the OP isn't necessarily in the wrong for having her coat on chair as other posters have suggested.

@Vitani

A Barbour doar may not be ridiculously expensive to you, it certainly is to many people. I wouldn't be able to afford to pay you the whole thing. I might offer to pay you in installments of £20 a week.

Your coat shouldn't be trailing on the floor though.

Maybe there's no where to hang it?

@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.

What cloakroom?

All these people banging on about H and S really are missing the point! Your colleagues are behaving like three year olds and should be mature enough to behave like adults when at work! I hang my coat over the chair occasionally and it wouldn’t cross my mind that my colleagues would use the chair as a playground apparatus!

@Jockolgy

All these people banging on about H and S really are missing the point! Your colleagues are behaving like three year olds and should be mature enough to behave like adults when at work! I hang my coat over the chair occasionally and it wouldn’t cross my mind that my colleagues would use the chair as a playground apparatus!

They should be mature enough, yes, but they clearly aren't, so they need someone to 'bang on about H and S' to them.

She damaged your property through her own carelessness, she should pay for it.

She sounds like a flake.

Working from home avoids all this office bs.

"Of course it's a trip hazard if it's dangling on the floor, same as a computer wire or your bag's handle..."

How can you possibly trip over a coat hanging off the back of a chair unless you are literally rubbing against it? You might as well say a desk is a trip hazard, in that it's a thing that if you walk right into you might bash into.

I have never worked in an office with a cloakroom...

Maybe there's no where to hang it?

Fair enough. I think this should be raised with you management or whatever, there should be somewhere to hang your coat.

I think your coat shouldn't have been on the floor.

@Wulfenite well there's usually an area to hang one's coats and bags in most office buildings, usually near the door or kitchen. Some places have lockers. What sort of an office is it??

@CapMarvel

"Of course it's a trip hazard if it's dangling on the floor, same as a computer wire or your bag's handle..."

How can you possibly trip over a coat hanging off the back of a chair unless you are literally rubbing against it? You might as well say a desk is a trip hazard, in that it's a thing that if you walk right into you might bash into.

The coat was hanging on the floor. If it can get caught in a chair it can get tripped over.

A desk is a piece of office furniture. It'll generally always be in the same location and will have been part of risk assessments.

@Stompythedinosaur - the coat was on the back of OP's chair with part on the floor. She's already said there's nowhere else to put coats in her office.

Colleague shouldn't have been dicking about on her chair like she was on the Walters.

Every office I've worked in there is no cloakroom nowhere to hang your coat up they all go on the chairs! The only place I've ever had a locker is when I did factory work

Presumably the coat was hanging on the floor because it's longer than the chair. If you trip over that you've only got yourself to blame, frankly, and if someone is pissing about on a chair and damages it absolutely they should pay for repair or replacement.

A chair is a piece of office furniture.

I would imagine using it to whizz around the office wasn’t included in a risk assessment…

I'm glad I don't work with some of the people here.
Absolutely 0 common sense.

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

A chair is a piece of office furniture.

I would imagine using it to whizz around the office wasn’t included in a risk assessment…

That makes no difference to the coat being a trip hazard

It could have been somebodies toe, this would have involved a major health and safety investigation particularly if you claimed against the companies staff insurance. Probably wouldn’t be covered since there would have been enough witnesses for them to prove the chair wasn’t being used for purpose.
I would inform HR and your safety officer who can explain the possible result to her. Also miss use of equipment particularly when it endangers the user and other staff without the use of proper safety equipment or PPE is a sackable offence. I did don’t know this until one of my staff took off her safety glasses and face shield and accidentally sprayed herself in the eye with mouthwash concentrate.

I'd be annoyed too OP! She sounds very immature. Are managers aware?

It is like I said before though girlmom is there any need to be that close to someone’s chair if there is room to spin around on a chair?

If because of covid there is nowhere to hang coats, why wouldn’t you hang it on a chair? We are still keeping a distance from others.. It shouldn’t be anything like a trip hazard unless it drapes 4ft across the floor.

And in this instance it wasn’t even a trip hazard but was damaged by someone fucking around on a chair.