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...
You fucked up. You'll be fine though. Just claim you were curious and that's all. Express your concern how you'd have never even been in a situation to say what you said if she wasn't bringing up her personal problems at work which is entirely inappropriate. Suggest she should dial down her personal conversations and if she can't then perhaps she needs mire time for bereavement or counceling until she's fine to work without bringing up her personal struggles.