As much as we might like to imagine workplaces as an opportunity for career advancement and a way to pay the bills, there are some truly hostile work environments out there.
Sneakily enough, sometimes the hostile work environment is more awkward and distracting than threatening, but that still impacts the work, pointed out the members of the “Am I Overreacting?” (AIO) subReddit.
Redditor sunny_skyies started at a new workplace less than a year ago, and she’d been put off by the fact that one of her coworkers constantly spoke in a baby voice to her.
When she later found out it was a long and elaborate prank to make her uncomfortable in the office, the Original Poster (OP) wasn’t sure what to think about working with this coworker anymore.
She asked the sub:
“Am I overreacting for telling my coworker to stop talking in a baby voice?”
The OP worked hard to establish a work relationship with her coworker.
“I (22 Female) have an odd coworker (22 Female) who talks in a baby voice.”
“When I first came to work at our company, she was quiet and never talked to me, and I understand, I am new, so why would she want to talk to me, but me being the person I am, I wanted to try to have a relationship with my coworker, because we are going to be desk-to-desk, so I would just start out by complementing her on her clothes and got us to start talking from there.”
“I finally had my foot in the door, and now I don’t have to sit in a quiet, awkward space with her.”
But the OP didn’t feel better when her coworker spoke to her in a baby voice.
“Then one day, she started speaking in a baby voice. At first, I thought it was a joke, but there was no joke that was made. It was just her speaking to me, and I just awkwardly laughed, and I just went back to what I was doing.”
“I thought it was a one-time thing, that maybe she was making a joke, and that it just didn’t land for me, but I was wrong.”
“It was not a one-time thing. Almost every day now, she speaks to me in that baby voice at least once, and it is starting to make me feel uncomfortable.”
“She will come over and talk to me in the baby voice. She also started acting strange, like walking by my desk, stopping and staring at me and then walking away, and waiting for me when I go on my lunch in random places.”
“Recently, I was talking to another coworker, and she came over to grab a cup of coffee, and she turned to look at us, stared at us, scooted over instead of walking, and said, ‘Can I play?’ in that baby voice. Then she laughed and walked away.”
“My other coworker was stunned, but then we both laughed awkwardly, and we tried to go back to our conversation.”
“AIO?”
The OP soon shared an update, surprised by the coworker’s motivations.
“I talked to my coworker. I never thought this would happen.”
“I grabbed my coworker aside and said I needed to talk to her. She followed me to the break room, and I asked her about why she sometimes spoke in a baby voice when she was around me.”
“She looked at me and began to laugh, and I was caught way off-guard. She was laughing so hard that she started snorting.”
“She eventually stopped, but it felt like she was laughing forever, and then she walked out of the break room and came back with our other coworker, and they were laughing together.”
“At this point, you are probably as confused as I am.”
The OP finally learned the truth.
“Turns out, it was a prank because I was new to the company and they were waiting to see how long until I ‘broke.’ I started working here in August, so it’s been six months.”
“I am beyond words, and I am embarrassed, because this was all just a ‘prank,’ but genuinely, I felt weird about this coworker, and come to find out, it was a prank because I was new.”
“I smiled awkwardly and laughed because I didn’t know what else to do.”
“All I can say is that I am embarrassed that it took this long for me to realize it was a prank and don’t know how to interact with her next.”
“AIO?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NOR: Not Overreacting
- YOR: You’re Overreacting
Some were confused about how this qualified as a prank.
“For it to be a prank, there needs to be a joke, and you also need to laugh? What exactly is the joke? Just the voice? Really? Did you laugh?”
“If my coworkers tried this, I would probably never talk to them outside of required workplace interactions ever again.” – ScorpioZA
“NOR. That’s kind of creepy and weird. Like, not funny or fun for anyone.” – Physical_Feeling3121
“You specifically started complimenting her to be friendly and start conversations, and this prank is how she decides to respond? Reminds me of mean girls in high school. If it were me, I’d be seriously limiting how much we interact from this point on…” – nowimhaunted
“This is extreme loser behavior. The people involved in this just outed themselves to you as complete morons who are not worth even wasting energy on. No one of any character or substance would do this. This is literally the behavior of a very young child, and it’s super weird.” – AbleCap5222
“I wish you knew about it ahead of time and never let on. If they ever asked you if you knew, just say, ‘Of course I did! Why do you ask?’ Let them look defeated! The prankster becomes the pranked!” – CuteFactor8994
Others hoped that the OP would inform her boss before this could potentially escalate.
“NOR. And now you should follow up with your boss.”
“During your next one-on-one, say you just learned that multiple coworkers made a concerted effort to make you the butt of a joke because you were new, which they carried out for nearly half a year.”
“Don’t make a massive deal out of it or start crying, but take a professional stance that this is concerning, because it damages office culture, is extremely unprofessional, and is just plain weird.”
“Ask your boss if he feels this warrants some sort of intervention, such as bringing it up to HR (because on the one had, this is fairly innocuous and damaged the coworker’s reputation more than yours, but on the other, it is alarming that they’re targeting new people to make them feel unwelcome).”
“Then stick with his recommendation, while asking him to keep an eye out on this coworker and her clique for other bizarre behavior that targets the team.”
“Oh, and follow up that meeting with your boss with an email that summarizes what you talked about (ex, ‘I am following your advice not to approach HR and instead speak to coworker directly’ or whatever).” – Apart_Insect_8859
“Go to HR. Hazing is not typically smiled on at a company run by adults.” – Haunting_Explorer376
“Hi, OP. Get to HR, now. This is definitely contributing to a hostile work environment.”
“‘Hostile’ doesn’t have to be ‘mean’ and ‘threatened’; it can be an awkward and distracting environment, and discouraging communications between coworkers. For me, this would check all of those boxes.” – hey-look-its-reddit
“That’s a prank if they do it for five minutes. If they do it for months, it’s harassment or bullying in the form of isolating and othering you and using you as a joke. I would inform your manager and prevent them from pulling this stunt on someone else.” – Xaphhire
“NOR. I would just let HR know exactly what happened and what they said, and inform them that any communication with this coworker should go through HR, as you refuse to communicate with someone who is creating a hostile work environment.”
“You don’t have to make a huge fuss, just let them know you don’t tolerate childish games in a professional setting.” – Party-Boat-1131
After receiving feedback, the OP shared a second update after speaking with her coworkers.
“After realizing it was a prank, I did feel very embarrassed, but some of the comments made me realize I have nothing to be embarrassed about, because it did make me uncomfortable, and how was I supposed to know it was a ‘prank.'”
“I decided to confront my coworker, the one who did the baby voice (fake name, Ericka). I told Ericka that the prank made me feel uncomfortable, because I genuinely didn’t know how to confront her about it, and I didn’t want to overstep, but it became very uncomfortable when she would watch me.”
Ericka made it an OP problem instead of trying to help solve the problem.
“Ericka looked at me and laughed. She told me that I couldn’t take a joke and that I was being immature.”
“Ericka then told me that I was nothing special and that our other coworker, who was in on the prank (fake name, Bre), was also doing it another girl in a different department.”
“Not only were they doing this to me, but they were doing it to another girl, and I was completely shocked.”
“I walked away and decided to go to HR. This was getting out of hand, and it may not seem like a big deal to most people to bring it up to HR, but this had been going on for months for me, and I wasn’t sure how long it had been going on for the other girl.”
The OP discussed her concerns with Human Resources.
“I told HR everything, and surprisingly, they believed me. They had apparently been having issues with Ericka and Bre for a while with these so-called ‘pranks,’ but since the other people they did ‘pranks’ to never brought it up to HR directly, they hadn’t been able to do anything about it.”
“The only reason HR knew about the ‘pranks’ was because of office gossip, but since it was never formally reported, there wasn’t anything they could do.”
Ericka and Bre lashed out at the OP for going to HR.
“Eventually, news got back to Ericka that I had reported her and Bre to HR, and it was a cluster f**k.”
“Ericka started screaming at me in the middle of the office, to the point that other floors could hear her. Bre came up to her trying to calm her down, and then Ericka told her that I reported the both of them, and they both then started screaming at me.”
“Ericka started throwing all my things off my desk, and Bre started stomping on all my things.”
“They completely lost it and were escorted out by security and fired. I am not an exciting or overly extroverted person, and I’ve never experienced this, let alone heard of something of this be this crazy, so sadly, this was the most exciting part of my year.”
“Take what you will, but I am amazed by the fact that people can be this absurd and act like this.”
“As of right now, I am not sure what happened to them because they never return to pick up their items. I talked to the other girl they did this to, and apparently, she suffered way worse than I did, to the point she had to go to therapy, and for privacy reasons, I will not go into detail, and all I can say is that she feels so much better with them gone.”
“Thank you to everyone who gave advice, and thank you for making me realize that this is bullying.”
Fellow Redditors were relieved to hear how this worked out for the OP.
“So they were bullying nightmares all around. Just mean girls who missed torturing people in high school. But grown-ups get real-world consequences, so I’m glad they’re fired, and you’re free of their bulls**t.”
“They will go to other people they know and try to stir up s**t for you. Assuming they had other friends. Document and report. You might have a non-toxic workplace by the Fourth of July.” – Beneficial-Sort4795
“Normal people don’t do those kinds of things. I mean, don’t they have other things to occupy their time? Like lives?! The jobs they’re clocked in for? Sheesh.” – Plenty_Surprise2593
“They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Had they just apologized to you and the other lady, they would still have their jobs. They sound like complete id**ts.” – NeolithicOrkney
“So, their masks came down, and they lost it. Their reaction tells you all you need to know. It wasn’t a ‘prank.’ They were bullying you and your coworker and having a laugh at you and her expense.”
“Good riddance, and may Ericka and Bre have the holiday season they deserve.” – Bencil_McPrush
“I’m glad you took it to HR. I can’t stand being ‘pranked,’ let alone in a work environment?! It had to be a hard decision to take it to HR as a new employee; I could see how that could feel daunting.”
“It sounds like it was the right choice, as they were already having issues with these two, but no official complaints were filed.”
“They showed their true colors by their reaction. You did nothing wrong. Sounds like they were acting as two high-school mean girls and needed to be called out. Good for you!” – elektric_eel
The subReddit was weirded out and then shocked by how the OP had been treated in this workplace and how the prank progressed once it was revealed.
It was clear that Bre and Ericka were filling a void with questionable bullying tactics, and maybe after some self-reflection, they’d be much more successful and productive in another work environment.