So, when a conflicted coworker/roommate decided to consult the moral compass of the internet otherwise known as Reddit's 'Am I the A&shole' about tension in the kitchen as a season employee, people were ready to hear every detail.
I (F25) have been living with my co-worker (M27; initals CC) for 2 months in our company's house that they had for seasonal workers. Up until 3 weeks ago, my company reimbursed us for some pantry essentials such as cooking oil, spices, and rice.
My roommate took advantage of that by buying and eating mainly things that were reimbursed. And he'd buy the boujee organic stuff too. The company found out and ended the reimbursements, so we had to pay for our own food.
No big deal for me, since most of the stuff I ate didn't qualify for reimbursements. But that meant that CC would pretty much starve because he doesn't want to spend money on food. Not my problem.
It became my problem when he started taking my food. Having gone thru 5 years of university I'm no stranger to inconsiderate roommates, but this is the first time anyone's ever stolen from me. CC is allergic to pretty much everything.
He's got some rare condition that makes him unable to consume cane sugar, nightshade produce, mushrooms and anything processed by yeast.
For the 2 months we've lived together, he would quite often eat my rice if I didn't label the container. Extremely rude of him, but at the end of the day, it's just rice.
Then 3 weeks ago, after our company stopped reimbursing us for pantry items, I bought a bag of rice, made a pot of it, and labeled my container. I came home from work the next day to find all of it gone.
CC ate all of my cooked rice. When I confronted him, he got defensive and claimed that 'he didn't know; the company never said anything about ending the reimbursements.'
I called him out on his bullshi$ because our manager called both of us into her office to let us know that the company was ending the house reimbursements. I told him to buy and cook his own damn rice.
He ran away crying. Literally, he ran into his room, slammed the door, started bawling his eyes out, and then proceeded to call his parents to complain about how I'm a mean, toxic person and he didn't do anything wrong.
To prevent him from eating my rice again, I made a pot of it using strained shiitake mushroom liquid. It's just the water leftover from rehydrating dried shiitake mushrooms.
I put the leftover rice in a couple of labeled containers. Today, I came home from work to him curled up in pain on the sofa. I asked him how he liked that mushroom liquid I used in my rice and he had a huge break down.
He accused me of 'poisoning' him, of how I knew he couldn't eat mushroom products and yet I cooked rice with it anyways, and how he'd file charges against me for poisoning him.
He ended up filing a complaint to HR and my manager about the whole ordeal, and now I have a meeting with both of them tomorrow afternoon to discuss what happened. AITA here?
He was faking it the whole time! Heard him laughing over the phone in his room about how he's gonna have the whole place to himself by next week and that he can't believe I fell for it.
Mundane-Cabinet9883 said:
NTA - even if you hadn’t labeled the food as yours. He knew it wasn’t his.
Hedgehog-Orgy said:
NTA. When it comes down to the morals of if this is okay or not, most employers don't care. All they are going to focus on is the fact this guy got sick. I've seen similar stuff happen multiple times in the 40 years I've been on this planet.
Every time it happens, the company has always punished the person spiking the food, not the theif. Hopefully your employer will listen to you, but you should also be prepared to start looking for new work just in case.
DamenAvenue said:
NTA. You told him to buy his own rice. He can't steal your food and complain about the recipe too.
mencryforme5 said:
NTA. I honestly just can't with adults unwilling to adult. I would be looking for a new place or asking your company to find you a different roommate.
Tell them what you just said: he refuses to buy his own food and eats every meal you cook for yourself and then complains because you cook things he can't eat. This is honestly the most ridiculous AITA I've ever seen.
jolly-honeybadger said:
NTA, the roommate is a liar and thief. Hopefully, you won't have to deal with him much longer.