He Got His Coworker Fired After She Mocked His Stutter In Front Of The Whole Company
He wasn’t asking for special treatment; just a little respect. But every time he opened his mouth in a meeting, someone else made sure he felt small for it.
Mocking a stutter might sound like playground behavior, but when it happens in a professional setting—on Zoom, in Slack, in front of peers—it cuts deeper. And when he finally said something, he didn’t expect to feel worse afterward.
Because the truth is, standing up for yourself doesn’t always feel like victory. Sometimes it just feels lonely.
For years, this 26-year-old man got speech therapy to help him with his stutter. While it’s mild now, it does rear its ugly head when he’s in meetings or giving a presentation.
Five months ago, he began a new job, and initially, it was pretty excellent. His coworkers were laid-back, and he appreciated how his manager consistently showed support.
But then, he met Sheryl. While Sheryl is from a separate department, she ends up in a lot of the same meetings as him.
“From the beginning, she’d make little comments like, ‘Should we wait for you to finish or just read your mind?’ or fake-cough ‘spit it out’ under her breath. I honestly thought I was being too sensitive, so I let it slide,” he explained.
“But it kept happening. Every time I’d stumble over a word, she’d roll her eyes or snort. Once after a meeting, she loudly joked to someone near the breakroom that I was ‘like Zoom on 0.5x speed.'”
“I finally went to HR after she imitated my stutter during a company-wide Zoom call — like, straight-up mocking me while I was trying to present. I froze on the spot. My heart sank. To make it worse, someone sent me screenshots later that day of a private Slack message she sent during the meeting: ‘Can we get this guy a script or something? My ears are bleeding.'”
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HR didn’t think it was a laughing matter. They looked at Sheryl’s messages, asked him to come meet with them, and then had Sheryl come in.
Before the day was over, Sheryl was fired for harassing him and violating their company’s code of conduct.
Some of Sheryl’s team members have messaged him to say he wrecked her life and got her fired for a couple of jokes.
A few of them have said he should be more resilient if he plans on staying in the tech industry.
“And yeah… I feel bad. I really do. She has a kid. She’d worked there for years. But at the same time…I have to work twice as hard just to talk normally,” he continued.
“I’m not trying to be fragile, I just want to be respected like anyone else.”
Do you think it was wrong that he went to HR after Sheryl bullied him for something he can’t control?
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