Employee stands up for herself after female colleague insults her during online office meeting

Given the rate of toxic management, workers are no longer focusing on finding a genuine company but rather working on their confidence and assertive skills to stand up for themselves. u/Particular-Virus734 shared a post on Reddit that has since been deleted, explaining how she stood up for herself during an online office meeting after being insulted by a coworker. The woman mentioned it was an important meeting that lasted 4 hours with several eminent personnel from the company. She also explained that it was regarding some software updates and features for the company. "I had only been using this software for a few months, so I had questions about the software," she said.

The employee further said that along with her department, there was another man and 2 women from a different department. "At the beginning of the meeting, my coworker was sharing her screen and then she gave it to Adam, who began sharing his," she said. "I, at this time, just asked him a question, which he was responding to. During his response, his computer went off with a Bing notification," the woman revealed. The employee then mentioned that everyone could see what was being shared, including the notification. Being a quick reader, the employee read that one of the 2 women from the other department commented and said, "The brown-haired girl is starting to annoy me," referring to the employee herself since she had been asking questions. "I was the only brunette in the room. The meeting went on for another 3 hours and I was wondering what to do," she said.

She decided to let the meeting end and then discuss it with her coworkers. One of her colleagues, who managed to read the message too, took it up to the manager along with the employee, who in turn demanded an apology. "I got a call later that day with an apology and found out that they were going to issue an in-person apology the next day. Although I didn't do much, I felt vindicated," the woman said. The woman had done nothing wrong in asking questions and clearing her doubts. However, the employee from the other department had no decency to be patient and work professionally. People were fuming that coworkers can be so thoughtless and rude. With over 7K upvotes and 386 comments, employees pitched in about how hassling it is to deal with such people who work as hypocrites.

u/userwithwisdom said, “If they get annoyed by a few questions in a demo, how are they going to provide customer support later on?” u/DNorthman said, “You need to be concerned about the quality of Customer Support they can provide.” u/BDLT said, “That person should be removed from the support team of your company. Have the company explain why not if they do not.” Several people suggested that the employee question the scenario to the dot when the person comes to apologize. u/lapsangsouchogn said, “You can make them squirm if you dissect the entire situation with them. ‘I realize that in my enthusiasm for this project, I became annoying to others, but I don't understand exactly why. Can you explain so we can use this as a learning moment?' The trick is to appear earnestly confused and eager to do better. One little smirk and it's all over."