Sarah and her co-worker share a running joke about his former boss, but when a new co-worker overhears their conversation and mistakenly believes Gio is gay, and the co-worker goes to HR to complain.
Inside Jokes
Gio and Sarah had always shared a close friendship, built on years of working together and sharing inside jokes. One of their favorite jokes was referring to Gio’s former boss, Drew, as his “boyfriend.” Drew had been a terrible boss to everyone except Gio, who he favored with good accounts and even endorsed for a promotion despite not meeting all of his targets. However, Drew was fired last year for sexual harassment, which put an end to his reign of terror.
A Funny Photoshop
For Gio’s birthday this year, Sarah decided to create a funny photoshopped picture of Gio and Drew’s faces on a gay couple’s picture. Gio found it hilarious and even shared it with some of their co-workers, who also got a kick out of it.
She Didn’t Understand
However, one of their new co-workers, Kate, overheard one of their conversations where Sarah referred to Drew as Gio’s “boyfriend” and mistakenly believed that Gio was gay.
A Shocking Reaction
Kate was shocked by what she had overheard, and she immediately went to their co-worker, Cory, to ask if Gio was gay. Cory, who had been with the company for a while, knew about Sarah and Gio’s joke and explained that Gio was straight, married, and had kids. He also told Kate that the joke about Drew being Gio’s “boyfriend” was just a long-time inside joke between Sarah and Gio.
She Reported to HR
Despite Cory’s explanation, Kate still felt uncomfortable with the joke and decided to go to HR to complain about Sarah’s jokes about Gio’s sexuality. HR spoke to both Sarah and Gio, who explained that it was a long-time inside joke between them that he took part in. In the end, Sarah was cleared of any wrongdoing, but she was still angry and frustrated with Kate’s actions.
An Overreaction
Sarah couldn’t understand why Kate didn’t even talk to Gio before making a complaint. She felt that Kate had overreacted and caused unnecessary drama in the workplace. Sarah had always prided herself on her ability to make people laugh and lighten the mood, but now she felt like she had to walk on eggshells around Kate and other new co-workers.
Could Have Handled It Better
Despite her anger, Sarah tried to see things from Kate’s perspective. She realized that Kate was new to the company and didn’t know about their inside jokes. However, Sarah still felt that Kate could have handled the situation differently and talked to Gio before making a complaint.
She Tried to Avoid Her
In the end, Sarah decided to avoid Kate as much as possible. She didn’t want to cause any more drama in the workplace, and she didn’t want to risk offending Kate again. However, Sarah couldn’t help but feel like she had lost a bit of herself in the process. She had always been the one to make people laugh and bring a bit of levity to the workplace, but now she felt like she had to censor herself to avoid offending anyone.
The Internet Responded
One person wrote, “Yeah after 2 weeks you don’t have the lay of the land down enough to make an accusation about an off hand comment about others. At best I would talk to Gio, and even then I wouldn’t rock the boat unless asked only 2 weeks into a new job.”
More Internet Comments
Another commenter wrote, “I have never ever met somebody that gets offended on someone else’s behalf that I like, most are virtue signallers and woke performance artists that want to look like they care but they do it for the “clout” instead of actually caring about people.”
A Final Comment
This last person commented, “Anyone who’s worked in an office setting long enough has encountered this type of person, she’s a troublemaker. She was already trying to start stuff when she went to the co-worker instead of Gio. If OP doesn’t have a business reason to interact with this person then avoidance is perfectly acceptable.”
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