AITA for not feeling terrible that a coworker passed away?
There's this coworker that joined my team about 2 years ago or so. From day one, she was insufferable, bragged about her high salary (which was very unfairly given to her, a newbie, while the rest of the team earned less than her), and even tried to turn us against another team member that happens to be black (she had no valid reason for doing so, and she tried to complain about that coworker only one week into her working here, so my suspicion is that she was being racist).
She was also a huge ass-kisser from day one. One of our bosses told me that he literally feels uncomfortable around her, because she'd always look at him at work events, waiting for him to look like he "needs something", just so she could run over and ask if he needed anything. She kept messaging him asking when he's going to visit the office again (he is located in a different country and visits our office from time to time), so she could be the first to jump onto the organization of everything. It got so bad that that boss stopped announcing his visits altogether, and started just popping in unexpectedly.
To summarize, we had all already formed our opinions about her very early on -- and hated her. Then, about a year ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was caught at a very early stage, and after having a few surgeries and rounds of chemo, she has beaten it. I was struggling to feel sympathy for her, because her condition only made her even more insufferable at work. I understand that she was struggling, but that doesn't give anyone a justification to be an asshole.
Please note that I never openly "bullied" her nor that I ever insulted her. All the things I'd say about her were comments between coworkers, and I was perfectly civil towards her directly, but still pointed out her mistakes to her. I'm usually brutally honest, so I really try not to be brutal in the workplace, as to avoid drama.
Today, we were told that she had passed away. I don't know what exactly happened, it might've been complications from her recent surgery. We were shocked and it took us all by surprise.
I don't know how to feel about this. I understand that nobody deserves such a fate, but I literally have to force myself into feeling bad about this, because I already had a formed opinion of her. I've never been the type of person that could just flip a switch or put a mask on and try to feel differently from how I actually feel about someone when they're suddenly having it bad in life. I feel like an asshole for hating her through her tough times, and not feeling as bad about her death as one should feel, so... AITA?
Posted Nov 5, 2025, 11:46 PM UTC · locked