not extremely NSFW but tagged in case. i (19f) found out yesterday that i’m going to be laid off from my job due to company downsizing. i knew this already but i confirmed it by checking the schedule for this month. i was obviously really sad as i learned so many new things and i also loved working with my coworkers. these next two weeks will be my last at the company i work at.

this may get confusing so please bear with me. i work under a company that works at big retail stores, so i am familiar with a lot of the retail workers since i essentially work with them as well. we will say that i work at walmart but not for walmart to make it easier. i am friends with a lot of the walmart workers, and one (37m) of them said that he could put in a word for me if need be. yesterday i messaged him confirming that i am being laid off and i was worried that walmart may not accept me even if he did say something. suddenly out of the blue he sends me this screenshot of a message between him and his mistress….. i want to say that we have never, ever talked about anything like this before. i don’t want to say many details about what he sent me because i’m really not trying to ridicule or embarrass him, i just need advice. i will say that the screenshot is something you would never wanna learn about your own coworker, so up to your imagination.

i did reply in confusion and i think he tried to make it seem like it never happened at all. i asked him why he would send me something like that and he sends me another vague message that had nothing to do with what i sent so i ask if he’s on something. he then says exactly, “Maybe that wasn't ment for you. I fucked.up.” i ask if he meant to send that he said, “Fuck so wired. No I did not.” and then he brushed it off and continued talking about how walmart may still be possible. i didn’t reply so he sent me another text asking about my family because he knows about some of the problems going on with me currently.

at this point i’m really uncomfortable. another thing i want to say is this is not the first time he’s made me feel uncomfortable. he called me a good girl one time thru text but i immediately called him out for that and he apologized. i don’t remember exactly his words but i didn’t think of it as a big deal because he’s one of those socially awkward guys. i just thought he didn’t know how to talk to girls. but now i’m thinking what if it was on purpose? was this really an accident? if it was an accident should i brush it off as well? my coworkers that actually work in the company i do said they would report it to hr, but i don’t know. i responded later that night asking if he was on drugs and he replied this morning that he was drunk. still, he moved on and continued talking about the walmart job. i didn’t respond cus i was sleeping so he sent another text about the same thing pretty much.

i have not responded. honestly, he could probably just be embarrassed and wants to completely forget what happened. i want to as well, but as much as i do, i can’t shake this feeling. i don’t know if i wanna see him at work because i know for a fact i will. i could be overreacting as this isn’t the first time i’ve had such uncomfortable experiences with men in my work environment. i recently had to press charges on someone who is a registered sex offender because of something he did to me at work, so maybe i’m just on edge. and yes, my coworker who sent me the strange text does know this happened to me, so maybe he was just drunk and stupid and made a mistake. i still don’t know how to move on from this or what i should do. and again please know i am not trying to embarrass anyone, all i need is advice. should i try and forget this as well and deal with things as it is until my last day?