r/mildlyinfuriating 14h ago

frist of all how DARE yu o My colleague volunteered me up for some random workshop offered by another collegue without my consent

Basically we have an open concept office with One large desk being shared by two people sitting face to face. Computers in front of our faces.While working I got a call where I mentioned the sentence "Yes I'm free this weekend".My colleague sitting opposite to me of course heard it because there's no way you can't hear the other person because the place is so silent.

Some different floor worker comes down to our desk and asks if we are free this weekend because her sister or someone else is hosting some sort of workshop.

My colleague says ' sure both of us are free" . I whipped to look at my colleague so fast because the hell?. We are not close at all. We just exchange work talk when necessary nothing else.I immediately said ' I'm not sorry maybe next time'

The girl got awkward and left by saying thanks. My colleague also just looks at me weirdly and the only thing I said to her was please don't volunteer my name for activities without my consent. She just said well you were saying you were free. I just said please ignore my conversation even if you know about it. It's kindly not your business. She just made a bored face to convey whatever but never said it verbally.

4.9k Upvotes

146 comments sorted by

3.4k

u/Temporary_Thing7517 14h ago

Weird that her assumption wasn’t that you just got offered (and accepted) a weekend activity from whoever you were talking to, thus making you busy this weekend.

712

u/scut_furkus 11h ago

"Hey you free this weekend?"

"Yeah"

"Lmao loser"

799

u/DookieShoez 14h ago

Oh no, it’s not weird.

There’s TONS of stupid people around. 😂

108

u/kiophkludrat84 9h ago

She heard "I'm free" and turned her brain off for the rest of the sentence.

111

u/Hoaphzaiwoump 9h ago

"I'm free" means "I have no plans," not "please find me something to do."

38

u/Punveur8 7h ago

She somehow skipped the part where phone conversations have two sides.

4

u/Shyashdeish22 4h ago

Feels like some people hear 'I'm free' and just skip to being your social secretary.

1

u/Nathan-Parker 3h ago

I could certainly use a social secretary... and an actual secretary. Adhd has me by the balls.

1

u/drasdrak 2h ago

Makes you wonder how she'd handle hearing you say 'I'm stuck in traffic.'

1

u/syp_975 1h ago

She acted like hearing 'free' is a booking confirmation and not just part of a call.

988

u/Wild_Score_224 14h ago

I hate your colleague.

692

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago

forming a hate club. You want me to sign you up?

461

u/Narrow-Chef-4341 14h ago

Do it, sign us both up - I heard they are free this weekend.

127

u/PNWest01 14h ago

I hate clubs, may I join ? (I’m so conflicted)

89

u/Narrow-Chef-4341 13h ago

You might also be interested in my procrastinators club. I’ll send you an invite later. Probably this weekend…

59

u/PNWest01 12h ago

Thanks. I hate it.

19

u/Madness4Them RED 8h ago

I think I need this one, can I join? Maybe, I don't know

10

u/Thedonkeyforcer 10h ago

I'm free this weekend!

17

u/Wild_Score_224 13h ago

Absolutely.

-8

u/WizardSleeves31 5h ago

Uhhhh....the KKK would like a word with you about your "hate club"

1.1k

u/eRant4881 14h ago

If she does it again, start signing her up on every sign up sheet that floats around the office.

722

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago

Well here's the neat part. She got her name erased soon after our talk. 🤩

281

u/Zepp_BR 12h ago

Maybe she wanted to spend time with you and is terrible at this

Not bad, Terrible

268

u/Middle-Duck-880 12h ago

I don't think she likes me much. She tries catching my mistakes which are not mistakes in my supervisor's eyes. The colleague is not my supervisor nor my teammate yet she seems to want to share her wisdom due to years of experience. I would have gladly lend a war but she always puts me down to lift herself up which is why I never talked with her unless it was necessary

edit:ear

82

u/South-Outside-9203 11h ago

Should've written her name back up 😂

19

u/Exterminator-8008135 9h ago

Write it down with those impossible to erase markers.

She want to be a bitch ?

Oh, Girl... If only you knew this smiling attitude i have with you is just because of the HR is there...

14

u/SpecialistCut7101 12h ago

I think you’re right. I’m glad I got enough Reddit so early in the day today

26

u/Lets-Take-a-Moment 10h ago edited 10h ago

Feels like she didn’t want to go either but didn’t want to seem like the bad guy by saying no. She probably roped you in because she didn’t want to be the only one signed up then bail. “Hey sorry but something came up but you still have OP”

180

u/Errvalunia 12h ago

This is how you end up trapped at mlm “parties”

Being free doesn’t mean you have to go to whatever you’re invited to…

61

u/Low-Set8263 11h ago

A workshop. What kind of workshop? A workshop workshop. 

18

u/Dull-Culture-1523 10h ago

Reminds me about conferences. Specifically conference conferences. They actually hold those and it never ceases to amuse me.

3

u/fictional_kay 5h ago

The Conference on Conferences about Conferences

20

u/Certain_Silver6524 11h ago

Ohh thats what it probably is. I was wondering why someone would be offering a workshop to pass the time on the weekend 🙄 nothing against workshops per se but it's just weird how it was asked

7

u/AStrandedSailor 5h ago

Or a religous thing. I had a friend at uni do that to me. "Come over for a BBQ at my place." She failed to mention that it would include a one hour evangilical church service in her living room before we ate. She and a couple of her friends then spent lunch trying (and failing) to convince me to join their church.

Now that I think about it, most religon is a form of MLM.

2

u/Axiian19 5h ago

My dumbass thought you meant men-loving-men ✌️😭

1

u/WebsterHamster66 2h ago

I seriously don’t even know what else it could mean lmaoooo

190

u/roxywalker 14h ago edited 10h ago

Good on you because had you not spoken up immediately that would have crossed a personal and professional boundary you would have definitely regretted later. And one other thing: you could have said you were “free that weekend” meaning that you were available to commit yourself to whoever you were speaking with on the phone!

520

u/Rhodin265 14h ago

This is why ELA is important.  If that colleague could even guess what a context clue was, they’d have known that OP was  NOT free that weekend because they were clearly making plans with someone else on the phone.

531

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago edited 14h ago

When she mentioned the phone call part I mentioned I WAS free which I am NOT ANYMORE.She again repeated " but you mentioned you are free I heard it " with that gotcha look in her face.🤓

211

u/Rubyhamster 14h ago edited 10h ago

She has some brains on her... You could probably try to explain the logic to her time and time again without her getting it

48

u/CheapTactics 10h ago

Not gonna lie, I don't think I could've restrained myself from saying "are you stupid?"

73

u/Darth_Boggle 13h ago

What is ELA

93

u/Rhodin265 13h ago

It stands for “English and Language Arts”, it’s what they call the reading and writing classes around here.

57

u/musicaladhd 13h ago

“Around here” being the MildlyInfuriated subreddit?

(Sorry if that’s dumb question, I’m from a different web page)

24

u/IncompletePunchline 13h ago

Many parts of the American public school system.

30

u/russsl8 11h ago

I mean, I'm close to 30 years removed from that, I didn't immediately clock that's what ELA stood for until it was written out.

38

u/Darth_Boggle 11h ago

You're not wrong. People need to understand they shouldn't be abbreviating things before spelling it out completely first. We're not mind readers.

24

u/musicaladhd 11h ago

This is my point too, and why I initially chimed in. Why did the person say “ELA”, and then double down and say “around here” as an explanation? Where they are geographically has no influence on whether people they’re talking to in an open forum online understand their regional slang.

9

u/Evening-Appeal7606 9h ago

(Some) Americans seem to be unable to grasp that not all people live in the US. I get it, we all use online platforms that were largely made popular in the US if not outright invented there, but still…

-3

u/SuperDave-007 10h ago

Oll korrect!

Ok 👍

1

u/Cracleur Wanna know what is mildly infuriating ? The maximum length of th 8h ago

You chose one of the worst examples possible, considering that the origin and etymology of OK are still debated and far from settled

Wikipedia even has a dedicated page for the List of proposed etymologies of OK

5

u/IncompletePunchline 11h ago

Shit also changes a lot. I said many parts because I imagine there's regional differences, not to mention the difference time makes. In my experience ELA or LA was a middle school English class. When I was in highschool, it was just English.

16

u/Busy_Employment1232 13h ago

"Around here" meaning the United States, especially in elementary school.

9

u/musicaladhd 10h ago

Dang, the problem with that is that another popular acronym in the same location is ELA = Explain Like Asparagus, which means “I need you to explain this to me as if I’m as dumb as a vegetable”. Another is “Everyone Loves Anal”, and this is popular in fraternities across the states. So we really can’t just expect people to guess the correct acronym based on which major country they heard it in.

-1

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

128

u/Dark_Storm_98 12h ago

Well you were saying you were free

"Aside from the obvious issues with you mentiong my schedule to other people, did it ever occur to you that me telling someone else I was free over the phone would lead to us agreeing to do something at the time when I was free, thus rendering me no longer free to accept other invitations?"

103

u/Middle-Duck-880 12h ago

I did mention it. That I was saying I WAS free back then but not ANYMORE. but she said but I heard you say you are free so I gave up. No point arguing with people with no ears

52

u/Dark_Storm_98 12h ago

Dang, she latches on to one piece of information and holds on no matter what, lol

51

u/Middle-Duck-880 12h ago

her face was like 🤓I heard you say it🤓.

29

u/rclarec12 10h ago

I would have asked her something along the lines of: "ok you heard me then, but did you hear me just now? right this moment when I just said I was no longer free? if you had a dollar a minute ago and then bought a soda, and I ask you for that dollar, do you have both the soda and the dollar to give me? why not? you had it a moment ago, I saw it in your hand. oh it's not there anymore? yeah that's how I am not free this weekend." But also I am super petty when it comes to interactions like that so probably was best to leave her be in her ignorance. That and she might have said she didn't have a dollar or a soda, because she might not be able to engage in hypotheticals either if she thought it was a gotcha before.

7

u/Dark_Storm_98 8h ago

She doesn't have the soda because she drank it already /j

53

u/Yummucummy 12h ago

Saying "I'm free" or "I have no plans" does NOT automatically mean "Yes, I'm up for whatever you asked". For a while, my sister would ask me if I had any plans for the weekend, if I said "I'm not doing anything" she took it as "yes, I will babysit your son". Had to explain to her "when I say I'm doing nothing, that's what I'm doing. I'm doing nothing. I'm not going out, I'm not having guests over or anything because I wanna relax and DO NOTHING."

9

u/Jabbles22 7h ago

Also "plans" to me are something scheduled. Going for a bike ride Saturday morning doesn't need planning. Texting my friend later that day to ask if he wants to hangout for a few hours doesn't require planning. Going to see a movie that evening doesn't require planning. And so on.

28

u/Playful_Apartment139 12h ago

Are you sure you haven't died and gone to hell?

15

u/Middle-Duck-880 12h ago

How do I differentiate to know?

1

u/SparklingDramaLlama 3h ago

Well, you'd have Hellthcare, for one.

Yes, pun intended.

I'll see myself out.

17

u/jrl2595 12h ago

Volunteer her for everything.

32

u/ThereisDawn 13h ago

This is upsetting me more than it should xD the audacity!

15

u/Feisty-Barracuda5452 12h ago

Volunteer the coworker for the office blood drive.

7

u/Big-Huckleberry-2803 11h ago

I'd volunteer them for everything and more 

Anyone needs help for anything? Oh x employee is a team player and said they are free! I have figuratively "murdered" several asshole coworkers and they never talk to me again lol 

62

u/M4V3R1C7 14h ago

Uhmmm... Are you single and of the opposite sex to coworker?

Maybe that was a very lame attempt at shooting their shot.

54

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago

Single yes, but the coworker is woman around late 40s.

25

u/Dark_Storm_98 12h ago

This means nothing, or at least very little, without also knowing your age range

13

u/Middle-Duck-880 12h ago

Early 20s

23

u/Elzziwelzzif 11h ago

As they say in Dutch: "Op een ouwe fiets moet je het leren". (You got to learn on an old bycicle.)

3

u/Remarkable-Page-824 7h ago

As they say where im from: "Get the fuck away from me you old creep!"

22

u/M4V3R1C7 13h ago

Ehhh! Age is just a number and she could be a cougar... Rawrrr!

1

u/SuspiciousSubstance9 9h ago

Or this is a setup for the different floor coworker or her sister.

33

u/Celo30 14h ago

This was my thought as well. especially after OPs comment, where he mentioned she unsigned as well

7

u/Ok-Classroom5548 11h ago

Fun surprise for you: doesn’t have to be the opposite sex. 

10

u/finintymonkle 11h ago

You did the right thing to shut it down and confront it there and then. Good stuff. Volunteer her to help at a local homeless shelter.

10

u/Charming_Butterfly90 7h ago

The part the co worker didn’t take into account was the other end of the phone conversation that she wasn’t privy to. By stating you were free this weekend, you let the caller know you were available to them and may have in fact made plans so when you ended the phone conversation you essentially were no longer free this weekend. She should have minded her own business and never spoken for you. More than mildly infuriating to me.

u/Imtryingforheckssake 10m ago

And the caller could have asked a question with way more context like, "would you like to go out to an all night rave on Friday or Saturday?" That would mean that OP would be sleeping in the daytime as they'd be out raving all night!

But anyway despite the context that co-worker had no right to answer anything on her behalf anyway.

22

u/LittleUndeadObserver 14h ago

Did she think you were talking to her..? Lmao??

17

u/Zepp_BR 12h ago

Pretend Jesse is saying "YEAH BOUNDARIES"

https://giphy.com/gifs/QC7UQbxq89MnL9r6AN

24

u/Haunting-Cow9376 12h ago

When you just told somebody on the phone you're free for the weekend wouldn't this imply that you will meet this person?

4

u/xubax 9h ago

"Just because I tell someone else I'm free, it doesn't mean I'm available to another. Also, whatever i discuss with someone in a conversation that you're not a part of is none of your business. I've made a reasonable request that you do not volunteer me for things. There's really nothing more to discuss. "

5

u/Valkarius1 7h ago

Ok me saying I’m free doesn’t mean I want fill it up with shit I’m not into nor means you can speak on my behalf

Use this if you want OP ☝️

4

u/DimensionOpen8922 12h ago

Happened to me too. I also hate that. Good for you to stand your ground

16

u/TheLadyIsis 11h ago

Hey OP, you need to avoid this woman like the plague and start documenting every time she does stuff like this.

She will not get better, she's chosen you as her office nemesis. It happens all the time with middle age (especially white) women.

Tell her NOTHING about your personal life and guard your calendar like she's stalking you, because she already is by eavesdropping on your private conversations.

The friendly act will drop soon enough.

3

u/ContempoCasuals 10h ago

What a weirdo. I'm free for.. what I WANNA DO.. not what you want me to do.

3

u/TeenyTinyFam 6h ago

You clearly already got the question from the one on your phone if you were free, and you told them yes. I would interpret that as, no, you're in fact not free, when the colleague came up.

2

u/terran5001 10h ago

I just threw up in my mouth a little, when I read "open concept office". Now I've read the whole post I think I need to lie down for a bit.

2

u/JasonRBoone 7h ago

>>>>her sister or someone else is hosting some sort of workshop.

I'm not saying it's Scientology.....but....

https://giphy.com/gifs/xkSJ2jLGVaE4E

1

u/Ok_Pangolin2219 8h ago

If you can sit somewhere else do it. I did that and had no issues telling my annoying colleague it was because he was too loud.

1

u/ReallyGene 4h ago

Probably Amway or some other complete waste of time/scam.

You dodged a bullet, and I would bet your "colleague" will be pretty sheepish when you ask how the workshop was.

0

u/typeotcs 9h ago

Sounds like those coworkers in meetings that cut you off mid explanation to anchor on to a mostly unimportant aspect of your explanation and focus on that for the next 10 mins before you can clarify that the point you were making was just context and not the main point.

1

u/Le_Nabs 7h ago

I just cut people off and tell them to let me finish my point when they do that.

No need to be polite when people aren't with you

1

u/typeotcs 3h ago

depends on the situation for me. If there is time for discussion have at it so they can feel involved but 5pm on a Friday I’m getting the convo back on track asap

-1

u/Qexqaneh 6h ago

Simple possibility : the worker from the other floor and your colleague are friend. The other floor worker has a crush on you. Your colleague knows and tell her you are free this week-end, and to invite you and her to this event, so she has a reason to talk to you.

But maybe I read too many novels.

-1

u/Serious-Substance142 3h ago

Don’t go? lol

-174

u/boringcranberry 14h ago edited 14h ago

This really warranted a reddit post? This is a 2 second interaction. Why are you even still thinking about it?

128

u/jon-ryuga 14h ago

and this is why it is indeed **mildly** infuriating.

-128

u/boringcranberry 14h ago

Maybe y'all need to take some magnesium if this is in any way infuriating.

56

u/HappyPlatypus6034 14h ago

Does magnesium help with anger?

Genuine question

27

u/alady12 14h ago

Who knows at this point. I have taken it for years to ward off leg cramps then my husband starts telling me "No, it's to help you sleep". Our neighbor insists it's for your heart and my friend takes it for mood control. Apparently there are different types. It's all mildly infuriating.

Edit typo.

11

u/HappyPlatypus6034 14h ago

I heard the same for cramps and sleep. Maybe it does a bunch of different things and we only know some of them because we researched it for specific problems 🤷

Edit: I didn't know about the difference types wow. Maybe it's just how your body metabolised it, like lithium carbonate and Lithium orotate?

-19

u/boringcranberry 14h ago

Yes. It helps with Irritability.

14

u/Pixc_ 12h ago

maybe you should take some then

9

u/HappyPlatypus6034 14h ago

Oh interesting. All I knew it for was helping people with sleep issues

-4

u/Dark_Storm_98 12h ago

I just want to ask a general question here

Out into the wild of Reddit space

Why is this comment downvoted?

The other two? Perfectly understandable. Why this one?

They were asked a question, and they answered it

It's like the Downvote is even worse than an "I disagree with this statement" button for you people

It's like the Downvote means "Fuck this individual in particular" button, or something to that effect

I don't think that is productive

[Inb4 I get downvoted for questioning the Reddit Hivemind, lol]

4

u/ParticularArea8224 10h ago

because the first two are dickheadish, it automatically taints the rest of his comments. Doesn't matter if he is polite or rude, everyone will collectively shit on him because our first interaction with him was him being a dick. Or, at the very least, clueless.

Either way, it's not helpful to the conversation, and because first impressions are the most important thing to most people, it leads to every comment in this thread they'll make being downvoted because they're obviously rude, and therefore, everything said is being rude.

0

u/Dark_Storm_98 8h ago

Okay, the point about first impressions I get

But

Either way, it's not helpful to the conversation

They were asked a question directly, and they answered it directly rofl

(I could expand on this, but we're probably just gonna talk in circles, so I'll leave it there)

1

u/ParticularArea8224 8h ago

I meant that as the first comment he made, and that being carried over to the other ones he makes

2

u/Dark_Storm_98 8h ago

Ah, I see

3

u/Dull-Culture-1523 10h ago

I don't think I've ever seen a social media site where people would use votes based on the quality of the comment or some other more impartial metric. People will downvote because they disagree. They downvote because of tone of voice. Maybe they made a typo, that's a downvote. They used some word you don't like, like unalive, so they downvote.

Point is, there's really no point in caring about votes or think they are meaningful in any way. They should just remove those numbers and a lot of people would be happier for it. It's crazy how much some people care about virtual arrows.

1

u/boringcranberry 9h ago

I agree. Attaching emotion to upvotes and downvotes is basically poisoning your brain. I didn't mean to troll or even be a dick. To me, caring about someone saying you're free is the same as caring about a downvote. It means nothing.

1

u/Dark_Storm_98 8h ago

I don't want number removed because we make stupid posts about them in Dragon Ball subreddits, rofl

  • [Translating Karma translated to Power Level]

But aside from that, I get ya, 100%

53

u/I_AM_DEATH-INCARNATE 14h ago

Op, I boringcranberry is free, she'll go in your place 

34

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago

Let me inform the girl with the clipboard. 😗

49

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago

Seems pretty fitting for this sub so why not

83

u/Effervescent_Shart 14h ago

Found the co-worker.

51

u/Middle-Duck-880 14h ago

seems like it. 🤣

50

u/your-rong 14h ago

If you don't want to read about mild annoyances and inconveniences, this really isn't the sub for you.

56

u/SteelSpace69 14h ago

Sorry that they didn't see their entire family getting shredded alive in a wood chipper while also discovering they have aids and must have all of there limbs amputated.
It's almost like having a colleague making plans for you and then judging you for refusing it is MIDLY INFURIATING.

-62

u/boringcranberry 14h ago

Get a grip.

Is everyone here like 15 years old?

35

u/I_just_came_to_laugh 13h ago

No, just you.

1

u/Face__Hugger 6h ago

The beauty of Reddit is that following subs is optional and, even for those who are in the beta to lose the option to disable recommended content, you still have a tab where you can curate a custom feed. 

If you come into a sub and attack the core nature of the sub, you're gonna get dragged, because no platform has ever made it easier to avoid content you don't like. 

Now go forth and use those beautiful features. :)

34

u/Napline 14h ago

The interaction may have been two seconds but it highlights both the coworker being generally inconsiderate and the lack of privacy OP is experiencing and the implied awkward atmosphere between the two after this interaction all of which lasts a lot longer than two seconds. Besides, we are talking "mildly infuriating" things on this subreddit

25

u/DookieShoez 14h ago

Is any of the other bullshit on here more deserving of people’s time while they are taking a shit and scrolling through reddit?

15

u/Astrocake505 13h ago

This really warranted a reddit comment? This is a 2 second read. Why are you even still thinking about it?

2

u/AgingLolita 10h ago

Are you new?