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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think having to 'pay back' 2 paracetamol is very weird?

137 replies

bamboostalks · 29/04/2009 20:24

Had shocking period pains at work last week so asked if anyone had any tablets. Colleague (who has always seemed normal) gave me 2 parcetamol (generic now, nothing fancy). Thought no more of it. Today she says, " Sorry Bamboo but wonder whether you have those 2 paracetamol you owe me?" I was goggling at her trying to work out what she meant and she promptly reminded me of the situation. How bizarre is that? I was so miffed that I nipped out and bought her a packet and left them on her desk.

OP posts:
booyhoo · 30/04/2009 10:34

i met my nana in town last frida and asked her if she needed a lift home( up a big hill with her shopping) she said "no i have to go to a friends to drop of the £1 i borrowed yesterday, it would take you out of your way!!!" bless her.

jeee · 30/04/2009 10:35

ebd, at my school it was even worse. If you asked for a sanitary towel, and couldn't pay for it, your name would be read out in assembly, telling you to bring the money in -and it was a mixed school. It took me years to get over the the one time it happened to me.

Wizzska · 30/04/2009 10:42

OP, go up to her and say 'sorry, I put a whole box of pills on your desk, can you take out your two and give me the rest back?'

Even when I was a student I never heard of anything so daft.

Expat - there was a guy at my old work who always ducked his round. Once the boss came to the pub with us and gave him £20 to buy a round on her behalf with. He pocketed the change and took credit for buying the drinks.

ForeverOptimistic · 30/04/2009 10:42

I'm the opposite. I was buying ds a toy that was on special offer recently and a friend asked me to get one for her dd too, a couple of weeks later she said "I did give you that £10 for the toy didn't I"? I replied yes even though she hadn't

The other week she asked me to get her about £5 worth of shopping and asked me to remind her to pay the money later because she would forget. I haven't reminded her because I am too much of a wuss, the thing is we are short of money so I do actually need it. I am such a wet blanket I annoy myself some times!

Cosmosis · 30/04/2009 11:15

We lived with a guy a uni who used to nick milk from other people and water it down to hide the fact. Unbelieveable. If he'd just asked to borrow some milk I'd have happily said yes, but it ended up that you had to put about half a mugs worth of milk in your coffee it was so watered down!

MaryBS · 30/04/2009 11:18

I had a student friend who didn't like sharing his icecream, so he used to lick all over the top of it, in front of us all, so that none of us would touch it! Gross!

MrsMerryHenry · 30/04/2009 11:20

She sounds incredibly tight-fisted.

bentneckwine1 · 30/04/2009 11:26

You said that she just started a couple of weeks ago...so probably she still feels like she is getting to know everybody.

When you asked for painkillers she maybe saw a chance to help and break the ice with somebody so gave away her last two

Then she might have needed the painkillers herself for whatever reason and didn't feel that she knew people well enough in a new office to ask to borrow some...except for you because she helped you out. She was maybe just nervous and it all came out wrong.

Or she might just be mean!

oldraver · 30/04/2009 11:35

Bamboo.... Has she kept the whole packet ?

Flibbertyjibbet · 30/04/2009 11:44

I am that organised person in the office who always seems to have stamps, paracetamol, hand cream etc etc.

Word gets round and before you know it you are the office supplier of paracetamol, stamps, handcream.

Two paracetamol might not be much to you, but I found myself having to buy some every weekend regardless of whether I'd used any myself!

I'm not tight, I'm careful with money, and that extends to not buying everyone else all their paracetamol.

So she might have just got fed up of it at her last place and thought, right at this job I will ask for replacement and that will make them all think twice in future.

If I'd been the borrower I'd have bought her a box as a thanks, seeing as you lot keep pointing out how cheap they are.

OP stop bitching about the woman she put you out of your pain didn't she?

Ripeberry · 30/04/2009 11:47

If she has kept the whole packet then she is mean. She should have just taken two out and just said it was her emergency supply and needed the two back for her own pains.
Anyway, i thought that people were not supposed to share medicines as you could get sued if they had a bad reaction.
In my old office it was a dissiplinary matter.

MrsMerryHenry · 30/04/2009 12:00

Fair enough, FJ. People do take advantage sometimes, don't they? Am I right in assuming that you're a PA sort of person - because people somehow assume that it's part of the PA's duty to be a surrogate mum!

humptyNdumpy · 30/04/2009 12:01

I borrowed 5p from someone at work for the vending machine.

TBH it didn't occur to me to pay 5p back, I'm always lending odd pence out for the machine and wouldn't even think about getting it back. He kept going on and on about this 5p though to the point it was getting embarrassing in front of my colleagues and manager and it was really starting to grate on me.

So I put the 5p on his desk in front of him, said thanks and went to walk away. He came running after me and wanted me to take it back. I didn't bloody want it back. I wanted an end to the nonsense. So there we stood, in front of everyone, arguing over who should have the 5 fecking pence - Still makes me cringe and [anger] when I think about it now.

gagamama · 30/04/2009 12:13

That is weird. Mind you, someone came round looking for hayfever tablets at work the other day and I piped up 'oh yes, I just bought a new box of Piriton' and gave them to her, expecting her to administer one herself and leave the rest of the box. Nope, she took the whole packet with her and it appears she is working her way through them! I'm scared to ask for them back now though because I guess I must've somehow implied I was giving her the whole box and I don't want to embarass her. I think I'm just a walkover.

belgo · 30/04/2009 12:14

Maybe she had a headache and was desperate for paracetamol, and she's given her last two to you?

Bumperlicioso · 30/04/2009 12:15

But if you don't want to be the person who always has paracetamol etc then just say 'no I don't have any'.

I went to a hotel recently with work and saw another colleague about 4 grades higher than me. We were at the breakfast buffet I was about to say hello but then saw him slip an extra croissant into his bag! I thought it was very funny and relayed this to my team when I got back, I mean he probably earns a shit load more money than me. Anyway my boss told me that on another trip he had taken rolls and ham and later proceeded to flog them to other colleagues for lunch! I am mostly impressed with his audacity!

SweetMaryJesus · 30/04/2009 12:18

pmsl I would "owe" my grandma a years supply of cocordinals if that was normal behaviour!

How wierd

thumbwitch · 30/04/2009 12:19

YANBU - that is a bit weird.
I would probably ask a return favour if I ran out some time later, if it were me, but I wouldn't at all expect to get the exact number of pills back!
She sounds like the sort of person who would count the exact cost in pennies of her share of a bill on a meal out and refuse to pay a penny more...

claricebeansmum · 30/04/2009 12:26

I'm usually quite liberal too - and if it is a stranger I help and they offer to pay I always says "Just pass the good deed along"

However, yesterday a girl accosted me outside the post office asking me if I had a £1. So I start ferreting in my purse and then ask her what it is for. A phone call she says. "But you don't need a £1 for a phone call" "It's going to be a long call" she retorts. So I made my apologies and scuttled off! Just felt that was taking the p*.

The only thing I would say is that I have had to learn to be generous - your colleague might have been me once

sandyballs · 30/04/2009 12:34

What a freak. There are some wierd people around.

I remember a friend of DH's spent an entire weekend laying a wooden floor for his sister and brother in law, and refused to take any money as it was family etc. The following week he popped into brother in law's shop to get a tiny bulb for his car and he charged him the 15p for it .

katiestar · 30/04/2009 12:37

At my work they changed their system from giving out paracetamol to charging staff 1p.They were advised to do this because if they gave medicine it could be constued that they were administering medical treatment to the employee,whereas if the employee bought them,then he was treating himself.
Could it be something like this ? (clutching at straws/trying to give the benefit of the doubt)

Peachy · 30/04/2009 12:42
sandyballs · 30/04/2009 12:44

peachy. You're absolutely right, I've thought this before.

mumOfTheYearNOT · 30/04/2009 12:54

One day at work it was pay day and a gang of four of us had some how all ended up borrowing a fiver off one of the other four.

I pointed out that if every person in the group was owed £5 by someone else in the group (and no one owed more than one £5) then we might as well just keep our money.

Up roar ensued and I had to demonstrate thusly, I gave Jane the 5 I owed her, she then gave it to Sally to cover her debt and Sally had borrowed £5 off of Dawn so gave it to her, I had lent Dawn a fiver so she gave it to me and back in my purse it went.

It took quite a while for everyone to realise that they hadn't been scammed.

nickschick · 30/04/2009 12:58

Lol Peachy!!

this girl was 'bought' the nursery because she wanted to be a nursery nurse but didnt fancy training - so her dad bought her a nursery.