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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/MammothRealistic on 2024-10-19 01:53:04+00:00.
This one has haunts me regularly.
I was working at this Startup as their IT guy & office manager. The office was small, no more than 30 people.
While I was there, I had this colleague who worked in HR who had a very ‘camp counselor’ / ‘mom’ demeanor; always finding interesting ways to bring a social element into the office. Let’s call her Mary. To demonstrate how invested Mary was, her and I would have frequent and lengthy chats about which office snacks we should order. Not because people disliked what we ordered, but because Mary genuinely liked chatting about the snacks.
On most days it was cute and on other days it was very grating. She was a genuinely nice person but I would usually try my best to avoid non-essential conversations all together.
Fast forward a year, the company doubled in size to nearly 70 people and the higher ups decided we needed to have a multi-day summit that would be held in the office and they asked myself, Mary and one other person to handle the operational aspects. Event items like decor, seating, swag and yes, snacks were now our responsibility. We spent weeks planning every excruciating detail. During one meeting, she spoke for 5 minutes nonstop about how giving everyone a company branded mug “wasn’t the best idea” and how we could “come up with something better.” We had a budget of like $500 for 70 people. Her suggestion? A Fitbit. She figured we could ask for $4k more in the budget and it would easily be approved.
Day 1 of the event comes and the three of us run to the supermarket to grab chips and soft drinks as we ran out. While we’re in the aisle trying to select which items to purchase, Mary manages to critique everything we suggest. At this point, the other person is exhausted of her and sharply tells her to stop overthinking everything. We grab a few simple items and walk back to the office in silence.
The event concludes and everyone heads to a nearby bar for drinks as the company put some money behind the bar for us. Mentally exhausted from running around for 8 hours, I start throwing drinks back and quite soon find myself and damn near the entire staff completely wasted. At some point during the night I’m sitting at a table with a friend having a random conversation and here comes Mary who joins us.
Mary immediately changes the topic and asks me “Hey, why don’t you like me? I feel like you always give me the cold shoulder.”
I drunkingly respond "Are you sure you want to have this conversation?
She responds “Yes.”
Then I absolutely go off. “You’re an out of control steam roller, with a cement brick on the gas, who is so incompetent at your simple job that you hide behind shitty sentiments that no one cares about. You know what people care about? Getting paid and going home. Nobody cares about the kombucha you stocked in the staff fridge. Nobody cares about your speeches on Fritos and which dip they go best with. Why don’t you stop worrying about snacks and start worrying about not hiring drug addicts.”
A week earlier a guy was fired for doing coke in the bathroom. Mary recruited him. We later learned that same guy robbed a pharmacy a few years back.
“Maybe if you worried about the right things people would actually care about your job.”
Her eyes well with tears. She gets up and runs out of the bar. The friend who just witnessed this smackdown looks at me and says “that was mean but she asked for it.” I hammer back another shot and go home.
I wake up the next day and I’m immediately embarrassed and also worried I’d get fired. I get to the office and the atmosphere is off. Mary won’t look at me. A few hours pass and I consider since the senior HR person hasn’t approached me yet, there is an opportunity for me to get ahead of this. I pull Mary aside to apologize. She accepts but I can tell she’s still deeply hurt.
A week goes by and in that time Mary has barely spoken a word to me. The senior HR person asks me to join a quick meeting. She tells me that in an hour they are going to terminate Mary and that I should hideout in a meeting room as to minimize the embarrassment for Mary. Her role had been eliminated. Insult to injury.
They deliver the news to Mary and other employees tell me she left the office bawling.
Although it was very freeing to express myself that candidly, I felt so awful for being that miserable to someone else. Sometimes you just don’t say the big thing out loud. I had a hard time feeling good about myself for a few weeks. I still feel like my rant lead to her termination.
TL;DR At company event in a bar a very annoying HR rep drunkenly asked me why I didn’t like her. I said some fucked up shit. I quickly apologized. A week later she was fired.