Was I in the wrong?

I'm going to explain what happened to me on thursday night at my job. Let me know if i was in the wrong or not. I respect everyone's opinion on here so if you need to be harsh then so be it.


Thursday night i ordered from the pizzeria with a couple of my co-workers. I just got 2 slices. But they were humongous so they came in a big pizza box. When i got my slices i put them down on a table in the cafeteria. I sat down at this table took a couple of bites of one of the slices and then got up to get a drink from the vending machines. When i get back with my drink someone had moved my pizza box to the side and had sat down in the very same seat i'd been sitting in. I told this guy to get up, that i had already sat down there, 3-4 times. He didnt. He tried to go the tough guy route. After he wouldn't get up i told him that i would flip his chair. He said do it. I did. He fell on his ass and got in my face, didnt do anything. He proceeded to sit in the chair on the side(where i asked him earlier to move to). Basically he got bitched up. He hurled a couple insults at me example: "You're a bitch", "What's your problem?". That was all. He then after 10 seconds left the room. After all that someone ran to the HR department and told them about this incident. My supervisor the next day told me that they would be talking to me on sunday to hear my side of the story(I work Sunday-Thursday, I volunteered on friday to work 5 hours.) . I'm guessing since I flipped this guy's chair that i might get terminated.

Did i overreact or were my actions justified?

Well you didn't raise your hands so I don't see it as an overreaction.

ExpertMcGee,

You join this boxing forum and your 2rd post here is an off topic thread about some bullshit that happened to you on your job?

Maybe you could start by telling everyone who you are, did you used to post on Ninja's or ESPN? If so, what alias were you using there?

Why so hostile? I posted in the off-topic section. Ali didnt have any problem with it. I wanted to hear opinions from ppl on here. I was a lurker on both boards. Seems like here its all boxing and No trolls. So i signed up.

ExpertMcGee wrote:I'm going to explain what happened to me on thursday night at my job. Let me know if i was in the wrong or not. I respect everyone's opinion on here so if you need to be harsh then so be it.


Thursday night i ordered from the pizzeria with a couple of my co-workers. I just got 2 slices. But they were humongous so they came in a big pizza box. When i got my slices i put them down on a table in the cafeteria. I sat down at this table took a couple of bites of one of the slices and then got up to get a drink from the vending machines. When i get back with my drink someone had moved my pizza box to the side and had sat down in the very same seat i'd been sitting in. I told this guy to get up, that i had already sat down there, 3-4 times. He didnt. He tried to go the tough guy route. After he wouldn't get up i told him that i would flip his chair. He said do it. I did. He fell on his ass and got in my face, didnt do anything. He proceeded to sit in the chair on the side(where i asked him earlier to move to). Basically he got bitched up. He hurled a couple insults at me example: "You're a bitch", "What's your problem?". That was all. He then after 10 seconds left the room. After all that someone ran to the HR department and told them about this incident. My supervisor the next day told me that they would be talking to me on sunday to hear my side of the story(I work Sunday-Thursday, I volunteered on friday to work 5 hours.) . I'm guessing since I flipped this guy's chair that i might get terminated.

Did i overreact or were my actions justified?

Yea you overreacted. You did the right thing, but not the professional thing. If you're a hardworker and they believe your explanation of how things went down you should be okay. You should come prepared to your meeting with an explanation of how you would handle the situation differently in the future, and apologize for letting your anger get the better of you. If you can get a witness or respected employee who will vouch for your character do that as well. You're caught in a classic "even if you're right, you're wrong" situation.

It's like this...even if someone deserves to get punched in the face and is begging to get punched in the face, if you do it you'll get in trouble. Good luck.

If you lose your job the story looks like this...someone took my seat so we got in a fight and I lost my job. If that seat/sticking up for your principles is worth your job then you did not overreact; if it isn't then you did.

Thanks Gumby. I had the support of everyone there. 2 people came up to me and said "I dont even like that kid". But it was probably an overreaction.

ExpertMcGee wrote:Why so hostile? I posted in the off-topic section. Ali didnt have any problem with it. I wanted to hear opinions from ppl on here. I was a lurker on both boards. Seems like here its all boxing and No trolls. So i signed up.

No hostility, we just like to know who's joining the forum, and frankly it seemed a bit odd jumping right in with some story about your job, when none of us have a fucking clue who you are.

Anyway, if you're not a troll/idiot, my bad, welcome and enjoy the forum.

Gumby wrote:
Yea you overreacted. You did the right thing, but not the professional thing. If you're a hardworker and they believe your explanation of how things went down you should be okay. You should come prepared to your meeting with an explanation of how you would handle the situation differently in the future, and apologize for letting your anger get the better of you. If you can get a witness or respected employee who will vouch for your character do that as well. You're caught in a classic "even if you're right, you're wrong" situation.

It's like this...even if someone deserves to get punched in the face and is begging to get punched in the face, if you do it you'll get in trouble. Good luck.

If you lose your job the story looks like this...someone took my seat so we got in a fight and I lost my job. If that seat/sticking up for your principles is worth your job then you did not overreact; if it isn't then you did.

+1

Tell them you'll take an anger management class or something hahaha

ExpertMcGee wrote:Why so hostile? I posted in the off-topic section. Ali didnt have any problem with it. I wanted to hear opinions from ppl on here. I was a lurker on both boards. Seems like here its all boxing and No trolls. So i signed up.

Welcome to the forum Mcgee. Also yes there are zero trolls on this site. We ban any trolls pretty quick here.

At work, when someone acts like an asshole, you have to ask yourself, "is it worth dealing with this person and if so, what isn't going to get my ass fired."

I have a temper and I'd be tempted to do the same thing, even though it wouldn't be the smartest thing to do.

Hope it works out okay.

You've always gotta stand up for yourself otherwise you'll end up been walked all over by other employee's.

I don't know if I work at a different type of office or am just way more passive than you but I couldn't see anyone doing this at my work. While we have all encountered jerks that act like this guy did, I can easily see your actions leading to termination. If you were a superviser, would you want someone on your staff that would do this to another employee over a seat in the cafeteria? I would not. I would go through scenarios like what if this employee's car gets dinged in the parking lot or he/she receives a hateful email or speech. Your action shows you might escalate one of the above scenarios further than just flipping a chair. However it works out, good luck.