Woman exposes her coworker's 'weird bathroom habits,' wonders if she made a mistake.
When this woman is weirded out by her coworker, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for exposing my coworker's bathroom habits?'
I (25F) work at a smaller company of about 15 people. I get along with pretty much everyone with the exception of someone we'll call Alexis (40F).
Alexis is very socially conservative and I am not. I do my best to not talk about things I know will cause an argument, but they sometimes happen anyway.
One time I used the bathroom right after the cleaning crew finished cleaning it and didn't bother putting the toilet seat down because I was just going to squat to pee. I washed my hands and when I exited, I bumped straight into Alexis. I apologized and went on with my day.
For the next two weeks, I thought Alexis was being particularly sanctimonious, but I didn't say anything as it wasn't too out of character. The subject of women's sports came up during lunch and she made a snide comment along the lines of, 'People like OP ruin them for everyone else.'
I'm immediately confused. I’ve never been athletically inclined at any age, so ask, 'Do you mean tall people?'
'No, 'women' that are still biologically men,' she says with a glare. At the time, this came out of left field. I am a cisgender woman. While I am still a tomboy in my interests, I am very physically feminine presenting. I said, 'Okay, one: There is nothing wrong with being transgender. Two: I am not transgender. Why would you even say that?'
'You can't fool me. I saw you come out of the bathroom and the toilet seat was UP.' I stared in disbelief as she seemed convinced this was the biggest 'gotcha' moment. She couldn't even hide her smug smile.
'I squatted, Alexis.' The energy of the room was getting very awkward, so I decided to make a joke. 'Are you telling me that you park your bare ass on the toilet seat in public restrooms?'
She turned bright red. Apparently she did, because she started muttering something about 'not being weird' before bursting into tears and leaving the room.
My coworkers think it was rude of me to 'expose' her like that, but I don't think I did anything wrong for trying to defuse a situation she put herself in. AITA?
Let's find out.
verendousaudeo writes:
OP, the squat and hover is disgusting It is one of the main reasons the ladies’ restroom is actually dirtier than the men’s. Now that that’s out of the way, you are NTA.
Your coworker attempted to out you for some reason and your return fire was jokingly acting like sitting without a toilet doily is abnormal.
You didn’t make her cry; she made herself cry. She chose to cry. If your coworkers ever mention or reference it again, remind them that intentionally outing someone without their consent is generally considered to be quite rude, even if she was acting on incorrect information. Perhaps even more so.
wittyrich210 writes:
NTA. This woman tried to out someone she considered transgender not fully understanding how dangerous that can be. HR. Right freaking now.
thortok2000 writes:
NTA. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Reminds me of a time a 'socially conservative coworker' was trying to 'remind' me to practice safe sex in my relationship with someone to prevent conception and I was like 'no we typically don't do vaginal anyway' and I've never seen a woman that old blush that hard.
They went somewhere that wasn't their business at all and all you did was point that out to them immediately and obviously.
She's also a complete transphobe, so, she deserved it.
What'd she expect you to do, flash your genitals at her? People are awful.