📝 AITA for publicly calling out my coworker who hijacked my presentation and presented my work as his own?

By Alert_Comfortable878 • Score: 3 • April 19, 2025 5:30 PM


I (24F) work at a mid-size marketing firm where I've been for about 2 years. Last month, our department hired this new guy (29M) who's super qualified on paper but has been a complete nightmare to work with.

From day one, he's been mansplaining EVERYTHING to me, even though I literally trained him. He interrupts me in meetings, takes credit for my ideas, and constantly tries to "correct" my work. I've tried addressing it directly with him, but he just smiles and says I'm "too sensitive."

Yesterday was the final straw. We had a big client presentation that I'd been working on for weeks. I sent him the deck the night before so he could review his small portion. This morning, I discover he completely overhauled mY EnTIRE PRESENTATION without telling me, changing all my carefully researched recommendations.

I was furious but kept calm. When we got into the meeting and he started presenting MY work as if it was his brilliant creation, I couldn't take it anymore. I interrupted him and said, "Actually, I need to clarify something. This presentation was completely changed without my knowledge or consent this morning. The recommendations being presented are not what our team agreed on and haven't been properly vetted."

The client looked confused, my boss seemed shocked, and the room went silent. I proceeded to pull up my original presentation from my email and walked through the actual recommendations we'd developed.

Now he's complaining to HR that I "publicly humiliated" him and created a "hostile work environment." My boss pulled me aside and said while she understands my frustration, i should have handled it privately instead of "making a scene" in front of the client.

Some coworkers are saying I was justified in standing up for myself, while others think I was unprofessional and should have waited until after the meeting. AITA for calling him out during the client presentation?

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