Karen’s actions escalated from verbal complaints to actively testing the dog and deliberately using strong scents near the OP’s desk, which medically endangers the OP. The situation reached a peak when Karen photographed the OP and Max and posted this information, including the OP’s full name and workplace, to a public Facebook group to encourage exposing them. The OP reported this severe harassment to Human Resources, resulting in Karen’s immediate termination, which now leaves the OP feeling guilty despite the threat to his safety.
I have a medical alert service dog named Max who helps with a serious heart condition. He’s literally saved my life multiple times by alerting before I pass out. I started a new office job 3 months ago, and everything was fine until (let’s call her) “Karen” started her crusade against Max.
It started small. She’d loudly announce “pets aren’t allowed in the office” every time she saw us. I explained repeatedly that Max is a service dog, not a pet, and showed her his documentation.
She then started telling everyone I was “was obviously faking” because I “look too young to be disabled.”
Things escalated fast. She’d try to “test” Max by dropping food near him (he’s trained to ignore it). She reported me to HR weekly. But the worst part? She started purposely wearing strong perfume and spraying air freshener around my desk, which triggers my condition.
Max alerted 3 times in one day because of this.
The final straw? I found out she was taking photos of me and Max and posting them in a Facebook group about “fake service dogs,” asking for ways to “expose” me. She included my full name and workplace.
I took screenshots and went to HR. They fired her on the spot for harassment and creating a hostile work environment. Now my inbox is flooded with messages from her friends and family saying I’m TA for “getting a mother of 3 fired over a dog” and that I “should have just worked from home if I’m so sick.”
Here’s the thing – I actually feel horrible that she lost her job. Her kids aren’t at fault here. But she literally put my life at risk with the perfume stunts, and doxxing me online was scary.
Conclusion
The OP is caught between feeling sympathy for Karen, who lost her job and has three children, and acknowledging that her actions directly endangered the OP’s life through intentional environmental attacks and public doxxing. The core conflict lies in balancing empathy for a coworker’s sudden unemployment against the necessity of enforcing professional boundaries to ensure personal safety and legal rights regarding a service animal.
Was the OP justified in reporting harassment that directly led to a coworker’s termination, or should the OP have sought a less severe resolution given the coworker’s family situation? Readers should consider where the line falls between acceptable workplace conflict and actionable threats to health and privacy.
Here’s how people reacted:
My wife stopped at a place to get lunch with our daughter recently and they had her 70 pound dog with them. The place had a large outside dining area, but you had to walk about 3 feet inside to get to the entrance to the outside area. They told her no pets allowed, so he couldn’t come in. Then one of the workers winked at her on the side and said, “unless its a ‘service’ dog”. They did not go in, because we believe such things are ridiculous. But you are unfortunately living in a society that has made a joke out of true service dogs and also created a lot of entitled people along with it.
Your coworker was a total jerk and its 100% her fault she got fired. Anyone in a workplace today, given all the rules, is just plane dumb to stick their nose in something like this. Unless your dog was bothering her, she is not very smart and hopefully learned a lesson for the future. Anyone blaming you about this is not your friend and equally not very smart to take your coworker’s side.
I like to go a Devil’s Advocate route here. Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that Max IS a “fake service dog”. Exposing him is not your co-workers job, harassing you is not your co-workers job, and risking your physical well-being is *definitely* not your co-worker’s job.
All three of those things are grounds for dismissal.
You know what…let’s take this thing to a recockulous level and assume all that IS her job….she should still be dismissed for posting your personal info online. Even if her job was to screw you over mentally, emotionally, and physically, that job would end at the workplace. Taking “the job” home, presumably with information gathered at work, has to lead to a dismissal as the risk to the company (anything that happens to you would be on them) is too great.
So NTA. Full stop!
Absolutely NTA. Don’t respond to anyone coming at you on her behalf. She’s a c*nt who clearly surrounds herself with like-minded c*nts.
Give your doggo a treat from me. đ
100% NTA
She put your health and safety at risk with her little stunts and by doxxing you. I guarantee you werenât the only one who saw what she was doing and I seriously doubt you were the only one who spoke to HR about her.
NTA
>They fired her on the spot for harassment
She acted like an absolute AH and deserved to get fired. You weren’t the only one to think she was the AH either. I’d be tempted to find out where she’s working at the next place and share the screenshots with her boss or HR. But I don’t advise doing that.
This is a lesson I hope she learned. Like many have said, if it wasnât you, it would have been someone else for some other reason.
BTW, whereabouts do you work? Sounds like a whole lot of complete idiots around you.
If her actions incapacitated you, the malicious woman would be sued in Court.
Also you didnt get her fired, you reported inappropriate workplace behaviour and she experienced the consequences đ