AITA for quitting my job after confronting my coworker for calling me a creep and a homeless bum?
I(20F) started working at my county’s correctional facility in late January. I originally applied because of a guy I had met on Tinder (30M).
We were never in a relationship — we hung out once as friends, and later one other time where we were under the influence and something happened once. We never talked about it again and stayed friends.
He told me his job was hiring and encouraged me to apply. I got the job. After I was hired, he told me that at work I should act like I didn’t know him.
He said if people found out how we met or that he referred me, I could get in trouble or be treated differently. So I kept things professional and distant.
Eventually, coworkers started asking if we knew each other. I admitted we had met briefly before I was hired, but nothing more.
After that, I started noticing people treating me differently. I began overhearing coworkers talking about me behind my back.
They made comments about my living situation (I’m currently homeless and staying in a youth shelter), my behavior, and other personal things.
For context, I’m autistic. I stim in subtle ways like tapping my fingers, tapping my feet, humming, or having small body jerks when I’m anxious.
I’m still fully capable of doing my job, and my boss had previously told me I was doing great.
I eventually reported the gossip to my boss. She told me it was unacceptable and said she’d address it in a meeting, but that meeting never happened.
Later, I walked into a room and overheard my boss herself talking about me to other coworkers. She stopped when she saw me, but after I left, I could still hear her continue talking.
This really hurt because she had acted supportive to my face.
One coworker I trusted eventually told me that another female coworker had been calling me weird and a freak.
Yesterday, I confronted that coworker privately. I asked what I had done to make her think I was weird.
She immediately started screaming and cussing at me, calling me a creep. I tried explaining that I’m autistic, but that just made her more angry.
At that point, I told her she could do my job herself because I quit.
As I was leaving, she yelled, “Good, go be a homeless bum on the street, bitch.”
She knew I was homeless, but she didn’t know why. I left home due to abuse and neglect, and I’m trying to build my life on my own. She used my situation as an insult.
What confused me is that immediately after I quit, four different people tried to convince me not to leave.
My boss, two of her colleagues, and the one coworker who had been kind to me all begged me to stay.
They told me I was good at my job and asked me to reconsider, but none of them had stopped the behavior when it was happening.
To make things worse, I also later found out the guy who referred me had been telling people he didn’t know me, while also making vague comments implying something may have happened between us.
I feel humiliated and betrayed. But I also wonder if I handled it wrong by confronting her and quitting instead of going through formal channels or trying to stay.
AITA?
