'No money, no food': Employee refuses to indulge mooching coworker, tells him to pay for his own lunch, boss gets involved

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Jul 15, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

In every office, there is that one coworker who mooches. You know exactly who I'm talking about. Whenever you go out for a coffee run and ask if anyone wants anything, they are the first to ask for a grande oat milk latte. At first, you indulge them. You want to be liked by your coworkers so this one's on them. You don't ever consider sending a Venmo request. Then, the next week, you go out for another coffee run and the same thing happens again. Eventually, your coworker starts assuming that you will get them something and will never offer you the same courtesy if the roles were reversed. You know this because you've seen it happen. And once again, there's no repayment… not even a simple "let me know what I owe you" statement. At this point, it has become clear that your coworker is actively taking advantage of you and it seems like there's no easy way to reverse the dynamic.

Clearly, I resonate with this Redditor, who shared their post via this thread on Reddit's r/AmITheA**hole subreddit, because I've been there. Unfortunately, there wasn't ever going to be a subtle way to resolve this, especially after the coworker got their boss involved. That stupid move caused OP and all their other coworkers to rally together against this guy and make it very clear to their supervisor who was actually being manipulative here. Thank God for these other coworkers or this could have gone in a very different direction.

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions. For more, check out this post about a student worker whose hours and pay were completely disrespected.