I (24M) work at a corporate company at a 9-5. I just graduated college last year and started this job 2 weeks after graduating around June. It’s an internship at a solid company that’s going to help me get better jobs and opportunities later on. In the beginning everything was going great and I made several friends including Chelsea (26F). Chelsea has been my friend since the beginning and we share everything with each other and often go out for coffee and lunch. Just a side note - nothing romantic or sexual between us at all. It’s completely platonic.

The problem started in November when I got transitioned to a different department under a manager named Ryan (43M). Ryan definetly has a narcissistic personality and loves getting his ego fed. This is pretty well known throughout the office. Ryan loves ragging on the “new guy” and since I’ve been the new guy since November, I’ve been the one who’s getting the brunt of it. Now I have a pretty thick skin so I don’t get bothered by it easily. Ryan noticed this and started really cracking down and started embarrassing me in meetings and giving me busy work so that I have less time to do the real work. After 6 weeks of dealing with Ryan I started looking for new jobs around December. After a long process of job hunting, I got an incredible offer in the beginning of March, but the problem is that my new job doesn’t start until June. Obviously I need to pay the bills so I’m stuck working with Ryan for another 2 months. Since my current job only requires me to give 2 weeks professional notice I decided I’m not gonna inform them until the end of May which is right at the 2 week mark. Until then I’m just playing nice and making sure no issues happen so that Ryan doesn’t try to sabotage my new job.

Ok, so getting back to Chelsea. Chelsea doesn’t work directly under Ryan but works in an adjacent department so she knows Ryan pretty well. Chelsea is also the only one who knows about my new job. Chelsea has been pressuring me to go to HR about Ryan’s behavior. But I’ve told her than I don’t want any problems and that I’m not going to go to HR. I just want the next two month to go by smoothly and get out of here. Well the other day Chelsea and I were hanging out in her office and Ryan comes in. For the purpose of being anonymous, I’m not going to say what happened next. However, Ryan did something to me that was definetly a fireable offense.

After that happened, Chelsea told me I HAVE to report Ryan. But I said no and just left. Well it turns out that Chelsea took it upon herself to go to HR directly. HR called me into their office and asked me for my side of the story. I straight up lied and told them nothing happened. HR dropped the issue but word got around and Ryan found out about it. Now he’s trying to go after Chelsea and get her fired for being a “liar”.

Now Chelsea is mad at me and won’t talk to me. She’s blaming me for her almost getting fired. But it’s MY prerogative whether or not I decide to report. I understand that she thinks that me letting it slide means that it will affect other people too but, to be completely honest, I’m looking out for me and what’s best for my future.

*Chelsea and Ryan are fake names obviously