Employee feels 'bullied' during K-cup incident at office, wonders whether to tell HR.
When this employee feels humiliated over coffee, they ask Reddit:
'AITA for not buying a new box of K-cups for the office?'
So I work in an office setting and in my wing of the office there is a keurig that someone brought in. Next to the keurig are a list of rules pertaining to its use. Everyone in the office contributes to supplies for the keurig (kcups, creamer, etc.) I do not use the keurig at all (I buy or make iced coffee at home) and so I do not contribute.
Last week I got a lengthy passive aggressive email from one of my coworkers about how not everyone in the office is purchasing supplies for the keurig when they should be. It kind of irks me because I don't use the keurig at all, but I decide to contribute anyway to be nice.
I got a whole box of 'seasonal' kcups from my MIL during the fall and before christmastime. It had a whole bunch of seasonal flavors like pumpkin spice, peppermint, gingerbread, etc. I normally don't drink these flavors so I figured that I would contribute (they don't expire until Fall 2023 anyway). So I put them in a large ziploc baggie and put them in the organizer where we keep all the kcups.
I then got an email (passive aggressive, again) from my coworker about how she prefers that we buy 'new kcup boxes' to contribute to the keurig and that the office doesn't need someone's expired 'leftovers' (my kcups were NOT expired btw, sheesh).
She then passes by my desk and dumps all the kcups that I brought back onto my desk and says 'I know it was probably convenient for you to bring your leftovers from home, but we need new supplies for the keurig, not used. please be more considerate next time'. I did not say anything because I was so embarrassed. Was I the AH?
Let's find out.
ladyhawke writes:
NTA. You should write a very professional email in effect telling this co-worker that you are not inclined to subsidize her coffee drinking, and cc: your HR. There may well be other people in the office who don’t use the keurig, so she may be bullying them too.
naturalgarbage8 writes:
NTA. 'I didn't know I was required to buy coffee for the machine. I thought I was doing the right thing by providing some spare k-cups from home. I was unaware that it was compulsory for everyone to provide the k-cups, especially since I don't use the machine and would be essentially paying for other people's coffee.
I'm going to have to talk to manager about this because I was not made aware that this was compulsory and have not budgeted for the additional expense.' She'll either back off, or she'll double down. If she doubles down then go to management or HR and tell them that a coworker is trying to force you into the coffee club that you aren't a member of.
guardtheplace writes:
NTA. OP, you are being bullied. The Keurig isn’t office equipment, it sounds like someone wanted coffee and brought one in - intending that it would be bring your own coffee. Personally, I’ve never worked in an office where coffee wasn’t ordered by the manager for the machines whether it be an old drip coffee machine or a JURA.
This -needs- to be documented. I would write an email to your manager / higher up and possibly someone in HR. Also: 90 K-cups from Costco is $45. The company should just order a box once a month.