High school teacher. TLDR a coworker recently lost her husband. He was in his early 50s and had an "extremely aggressive cancer". Months within diagnosis, he was dead.
Caught her completely off guard, etc etc etc, nothing to do, "ultra-fast spreading cancer," "he was in perfect health before," etc etc etc.
So anyway, funeral has just concluded last week-end, and she's telling her sob stories in the teacher lounge.
I turn around and ask:
"Did he get vaccinated against Covid?"
She replies right away: "Yes, he had all his doses, plus the boosters..."
Then... I smirk. Not smile, just a tiny, tiny smile on the bottom of my right lip. In my mind, I thought "mystery solved."
So anyway, she... I don't know, she completely flips out, starts screaming, "why are you asking me this, what is your problem" typical pre-menopause hysteria, etc.
Well apparently she filed a complaint with HR against me, and now I have to meet HR to discuss "something." Union rep will be with me LOL okay.
Did I really go too far? I mean, I just asked ONE question...
When you go IMMEDIATELY tell the HR Karen you're glad for the meeting. She was screaming and you feel physically unsafe at your job because of her actions and that she may need some time off for grieving.
You're afraid she's going to shoot up the school / other or commit workplace violence based on her behavior at the time. She's recently gone through a lot of stress at the loss of a loved one and is looking to lash out at people, even being the one to initiate the confrontation by way of telling everyone.
Her behavior is clearly displaying a high potential for the workplace unsafe and you are afraid of serious death or injury due to workplace violence at her hand.
Make sure this is all written down and ASK FOR A PRINT COPY AND AN EMAIL COPY AND MAKE SURE YOU RECEIVE BOTH WHILE YOU ARE THERE. DO NOT RELY ON PROMISES OF A LATER COPY.
Then, to be extra diligent, if/when you get fired, file an OSHA whistleblower complaint that a coworker was showing a high likelyhood for workplace violence, lashed out at you, tried to weaponize HR, and when you expressed your concerned about physical safety in the workplace *to* HR, you were retaliated against.
https://www.osha.gov/whistleblower/wbcomplaint
This. Do not rely on charity, understanding, or policy to defend yourself. Go nuclear on her, and make her defend her actions.
She would do the same to you.
The problem is that OP is like male.
The accusation game and benefit of the doubt rarely works in the opposite direction.
Because men don't.
Of course women will never play by their own rules if men just let them get away with it. Somebody needs to be the first to stand up.
"Rarely" still happens. Better than the 0% of sitting there and taking it. OP is clearly an autist, they can probably play a "neurodivergence concern" card.
This is exactly why I suggested filing a whistleblower complaint with OSHA if he was fired.
Also, OP responded that things did not end well for the unhinged lady.
This should be higher. Repost it as a top level comment so it is more visible. This is how he can win
Just a followup, I did pretty much what you told me, and said I wanted to file a complaint for "singling me out and insulting me" in front of everyone. It.... didn't go the way the female teacher hoped.
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