Who was in the wrong here?

[EwwPeople]

I have my own opinions and bias on this so I’ll try to make this as fair and even as possible .

A while ago , we had a leaving do for a colleague. Early in the evening, with everyone present A did a big speech, lovely, some laughs, everyone clapped at the end , all good. Towards the end of the evening, a lot of people had left already, B also did a shorter speech. Again, some laughs, lovely, claps , all good.

However, A took great offence to this, and the night ended with a row.

The atmosphere is still tense in the office due to all of this.

One side is , that it was incredibly rude /attention seeking to do a second speech. So this would be YABU.

The other side is that it’s not that big of a deal, and even if it was the reaction to it was completely over the top. YANBU

I’m trying to keep this fairly vague so as not to be outing , and also like I originally said to keep things fair and not take sides, but I’m happy to add more context/detail if needed.

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.

Reminds me of the scene from the film bridesmaids!

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

No need to suspect. I already admitted I’m biased and have my own opinion on things. It was in the first line of the OP in fact.

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

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

I think everyone needs to grow up.