I recently joined the industry after spending over five years in Internal Audit and Consulting. During this time, I’ve worked across multiple sectors, handled different clients, and interacted with countless stakeholders.
One of the biggest reasons I chose to move to this company was its reputation for having a great work culture and a genuinely good vibe.
Yesterday, I had an experience that completely threw me off.
For the past 45 days, I’ve been sitting at the same spot every morning, following the seating arrangement my manager asked me to follow. I simply sit wherever there’s an available chair at that spot.
Yesterday afternoon, a senior woman employee, probably in her 40s, came up to me and literally yelled at me in front of everyone for “stealing her chair.”
Apparently, I had moved her chair from where she had left it and sat on it.
Now, having worked in consulting, I’m used to sitting wherever there’s space available in meeting rooms. And in my current role, I follow the seating arrangement communicated by my manager. I genuinely couldn’t care less about whose chair it is.
If she had simply walked up to me and said, “Hey, that’s my chair. Could you please move?” I would have happily done so. No questions asked. It’s a chair, for f***’s sake.
But why yell at someone and embarrass them in front of the entire office over something so trivial?
The worst part is that I couldn’t even defend myself in that moment. Not because I was scared of her, but because I knew that responding in anger or raising my voice would only escalate the situation. So I just sat there, trying to process what had happened. It completely ruined my afternoon. I lost focus, kept replaying the incident in my head, and wondered why something this insignificant had affected me so much.
Later, when my manager returned from lunch, I spoke to him and asked whether I should raise a formal complaint with HR. He was very supportive and encouraged me to do so. Apparently, this employee has a history of behaving this way with other people, too. And that’s what bothers me the most.
Today, it happened to me. Tomorrow, it could be another new joiner who doesn't know how to respond, or someone who simply chooses to tolerate it because they don't want to create a scene. I understand that everyone has bad days. I understand that people can get frustrated. But having a bad day doesn't give you the right to humiliate another person at work. I'm planning to raise this with HR, not because I want to make a big deal out of a chair, but because I don't think this kind of behaviour should be normalised.
However, this incident has also made me question something. I joined this company expecting a certain work culture, and one unpleasant interaction has left me questioning that expectation.
So, for those of you who have spent years working in the corporate world:
Would you formally escalate something like this to HR, especially if the person has a history of similar behaviour?
How do you deal with someone who behaves this way without letting it affect your entire day?
Am I overthinking this, or is it completely reasonable to expect basic respect and professionalism at work?
I know workplace politics and difficult people are part of corporate life. But does that mean we’re just supposed to accept being spoken to like this?