Have you ever overheard people talking about you?

[Collins567]

It was a previous houseshare. We'd all gone out to a bar and I was wearing open toed heels, another girl accidentally stamped on my foot with her stiletto and wow, that was painful.
She was really apologetic, then I said to my housemate, 'Someone's just stood on me with their heel ' as it was bleeding and so I ran off to the toilets.
The next night I was in my room and I overheard the flatmate of mine talking to her friends. She said 'She came and told me someone stamped on her foot, and I was thinking, well what do you want me to do about it?!"

I don't know, help me maybe? 🤔

On another occasion I dyed my hair quite a bright burgundy colour. I heard her and a male housemate saying 'Why the hell has she dyed her hair red?!". I didn't get it everywhere or anything.

Anyway, never nice to overhear people slagging you off!

When I was 14-15yo, some graduates from my school (about 20yo at the time, I guess) joined us on a bus trip. One of these older girls disliked me for some reason, I had noticed her look at me in a weird way and later on a bus I overheard her talking about me loudly. She said "that one, whatever her name is, the one with goldish hair, will never achieve anything in her life, I know it for a fact".
I wish she had a chance to meet me now. Would love to see how much she achieved and compare 😏

Yes, I overheard someone saying they thought I had an eating disorder because of my weight. I definitely did not, it's just my natural body, it was extremely hurtful.

At uni, in the olden days when exam results were posted on a notice board for all to see, I was in the crowd trying to see how I'd got on. I overheard a girl in front say " Oh HoneycombBauble came top. She doesn't look clever."
I'm still laughing about it now, years later.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. What unprofessional and disrespectful behaviour. Were you able to speak to them about this (I'm not sure I would have been brave enough)? Or did you feel you couldn't stay where you were not appreciated? 🌹

Was just about to ask the same. These are all awful but this one squeezed my heart a little bit, it’s so nasty 😔. Raid, I hope you’ve moved on to better things and better people.

So sorry for everyone who’s posted here - I can only imagine what kind of shite’s been chatted about me by all and sundry, God I’d hate to accidentally hear it!!

Recently I overheard work a colleagues telling a new recruit how eccentric and chilled I am. I was delighted but her face wasn't when I popped my head around the door. I just said, " thanks" . I think weird is good.

When I was a teenager I overheard my mum chatting to one of her friends, they were chatting about their children. My mum said to her friend "oh Disco's as good as gold really, she's never given me a moments trouble". I was surprised and annoyed to hear her say that, usually when she spoke to me she made me out to be worse than Satan himself and a constant thorn in her side to the point where I'd often wondered why she fought for custody of me after she and my dad divorced.

My neighbours. Talking to next door but one (so their other neighbour) over the fence. It's a terrace and the fence between us and them is high so they probably didn't know I was outside. It wasn't malicious as such, they were speculating about how I cope on my own with kids with additional needs. I didn't say anything. At least my life must be interesting enough to be the subject of neighbourhood chit chat!

It's quite fun to say nice things about people when you think they may or may not be just out of earshot. This especially goes for people who might not accept direct compliments because they think you are just saying it out of politeness, such as your own teen if they have low self-esteem. But if they think it wasn't meant for their ears, they might believe it and be pleased.

I did! I was 15, doing after school IT work to try yo salvage my grade that our head of year had offered us after major issues with the IT teacher not turning up to lessons etc. I thought I was the only one who turned up and was happily sat in a booth at a desktop going through what excel was. The teacher supervising was a relatively young man who taught maths usually and was spending the time marking his books. He was quite new to teaching, usually a proper lad with the boys but quite good at his job. I didn't know two other 15 year old boys in my year group were there as I couldn't see over my booth but he was in their presence and obviously knew all 3 of us students were in the room. The boys started talking about girls they liked in the year and tore into my appearance and how nobody could pay them to go near that. I was genuinely surprised that the teacher who they had wrongly assumed would allow them to talk this way went absolutely MAD at them, told them they're on the path to serious misogyny and no girl will want them either if they ever speak like that again and to get on with their work. They apologised and he didn't care to even respond to them. It was actually very very nice, I had never expected him to deal with them like that and it meant more coming from him as he was kind of on their level and would be involved in sports/ football/ men stuff. Anyway by the time I was gorgeous in 6th form they did want to know me and I thought they were horrid so I'm glad it never damaged me too much haha

I had a nice one. We were on holiday in a very friendly place where people fawned over babies. Mine - who loved being fussed - had been passed around for half an hour while we waited to be seated at a busy restaurant.

During the meal, I was breastfeeding my baby when one of those rare silences suddenly fell, when through chance it happens that no one is talking at that moment. Through the silence I could hear an older woman across the room remarking, "Oh THAT'S why that baby is so cheerful: she's breastfed!" Not true; she was just cheerful by nature, but it was what I needed to hear. I'd had a tough time getting breastfeeding established and was still finding it challenging, and people back home were already telling me I should stop now she was over six months old.

I'm sure she never imagined I would overhear.

Thank you for saying that. It was a while ago and it really knocked my confidence, because I really thought we all got on well and it made me doubt how well I could read people.

I never mentioned it to our bosses because I was too upset and just wanted to get the job done. I don't work with them anymore but if I see them out and about, they're super nice to me. I'm always a bit gutted that people can be so two faced.

I read this and thought how nice to focus on something positive.
So here's mine - a friend I've known for a long time, and I love him, but we never tell each other how much we mean to each other. We were talking on the phone and I heard his boss ask in the background who he was talking to. He said "Sony - best friend Sony". It meant the world to me.

A close relative accidentally called me and unfortunately they were talking about me when I answered. It was devastating. I remember my heart racing as I heard the full conversation and making the decision to hang up as I couldn't endure listening anymore. I never told them that I heard but never answer the phone to when they call anymore. It was unspeakably hurtful.

I received a text from a friend that she meant to send to her husband. Confused at first, I realised she was talking about me. You know that shock you get that goes right through you? When I pointed out what she'd done, she was mortified. Cue end of very long and very close friendship.

On a coach home when I was a teenager and fell asleep I woke up to hear some girls talking about me. “I feel sorry for people like her because she’s ugly and has a disability as well. Nobody is going to want to look at her twice, surely?”

I know I’m ugly, didn’t need telling, but it still hurts to hear it. And now whenever anyone tells me I’m not I just think that they’re obviously saying it to be nice. Not least because when I did have a BF at school who was always telling me that I was beautiful, when I asked him if he really thought that he said “no, but it’s the right thing to say isn’t it.”

I have the benefit of being visually impaired so am unable to see myself in a mirror. Now it doesn’t bother me anyway, but growing up it did.

My father used to talk about me in the third person when I was in the room. Not sure that isn't worse.

When my father was staying with us for Christmas I heard him speaking critically of me & DH to my brother on the phone - my brother had never (and would never) invite him for Christmas, so the disloyalty of this really hurt me

Did you ever tell them you heard what they said @raidFlySpray? I'm sorry that happened to you.

I'm sorry you experienced this. I've had this too at school and also on my Mums side of the family. If I walk into work and people are in the staffroom laughing, I automatically think they're laughing at me. If I walk onto the playground to pick my daughter up from a school, I automatically think some mums are laughing at me if they're laughing. It's horrible. I like a lot of banter with people and I like to laugh myself. But when others laugh and I'm not in the conversation I automatically think it's aimed at me. Bullying in most of my school years and my Mums family has ruined me.

Two colleagues.
’Not very bright is she?’
’No not all there at all’
’Only thing she has going for her is long hair’
Followed by lots of giggles. From a woman in her mid-late twenties and a man in his fifties.

Yes, more than once. I prefer to hear, no matter how painful. My SIL will bitch about me and then go silent when I enter the room, I think you coward, say it to my face.

One of the "cool" girls in school who was a bit rough called me "the leader of the nerd gang" . I was right there in the corridor beside/behind her. She was embarrassed when she realized I was standing there and said she was talking about someone else. She was a bitch though

Not overheard but DH asked me to check his emails because the Wi-Fi was rubbish where he was. I read an email from a 'friend' of us both criticising me. I answered as if from DH and told her to bog off, basically. Told him I'd done it and he was quite relieved. Utter bitch.

I overheard exH telling his friend that I might not be beautiful and I'm a bit fat (I was a size 12!), but I'm loyal and look ok when I've got makeup on.

At our wedding reception!

That was a long time ago now and I've since married a man who thinks I'm beautiful all the time 😊