r/work•
sizzlewme

coworker keeps calling me a retard while at work

NSFWWorkplace Challenges and Conflicts

i work at a small kitchen. which i don't know if kitchen culture is a thing of like just constant name calling or what, but in the kitchen i work with its really bad. i have been called many slurs, i have been made fun of, witnessed other people made fun of, and heard unimaginable things about religions (specifically islam) that i cannot even repeat, all of this kinda framed toward being a joke too, which like how does that make this better. and this isn't specific to a certain line cook, its multiple and even the chef. i have worked for this company for almost 3 years, and it feels like i work in a high-school, surrounded by underpaid angry people.

thats some background, fast forward to today, a coworker of mine called out today and they are no stranger to calling out a lot. anyways, they start texting me while i'm in class about how the chef had yelled at them on the phone for calling out. like apparently calling him bad things. and i don't want to dis anyone work gets stressful everyone has a life. but another one of the chefs wanted to see my texts between him and i willing handed over the phone cause some of his texts were delulu. but i agreed with some of what he was saying not like fuck this place but he was talking about quitting and i just said if fuck em then fuck em, as in you do you boo. i think the other chef took it wrong and maybe what i said wasn't the best but also if i didn't agree with this coworker he would stop his franzy of texts. so its possible it was took the opposite way, but also these same people i have practically cried to asking for the name calling to stop, and they just gaslight me and say its not happening cause they don't hear it, ok mom, like chill.

so now theres and investigation with hr about this interaction between the phone call of him calling out and chef, and a past slur of faggot. unrelated to the chef but, some time back i had went and filed with hr cause i was sick of being called retarded by a coworker when i'm in college trying to become a professional (in a different career). nothing really came of it, the name calling started again, and worst is other people hear it and don't correct it, its rather immoral, cause when i get angry and don't talk then its a problem.

i feel sick knowing everyone could just be nicer to each-other and quit with the name calling and getting super angry. it seems crazy to go from this and pivot to healthcare, what am i supposed to greet the patient, "hey bitch lets start this medical procedure, hope you're not a pussy." so like am i wrong for reporting, i hate getting people in trouble but the stuff i have heard from the chef its crazy and like he has a family, but thats doesn't excuse you from being an asshole. anyhoo my therapist is on leave ig, so i cant get some feedback that isn't from a family source cause all of them just say fuck that place. any advice or is it just cause its a kitchen? I've worked for some before and loads of other different types of jobs, never have i ever felt more dehumanized verbally or gaslit than i have with this job. but i don't want to sway anyones decision on if i'm just pussy or not.

Posted May 1, 2026, 3:48 AM UTC

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