I feel like I accidentally walked into something I wasn’t meant to hear, and it’s made work incredibly awkward. I wasn’t eavesdropping, I didn’t mean for it to happen..and now I’m stuck wondering if I was in the wrong.
I’m 20 yrs old ( turning 21 in a few months)and I work in a really small office ( internship btw but they still pay me) with open desk space. The other day, I forgot my earbuds at home and had a bunch of shit to get through. I asked my coworker Dorian if I could borrow his AirPods. He said yes, no hesitation, just handed them over.
The AirPods was still paired to his phone but I didn’t really care because we have the same music taste just vibing to Ivoxygen while doing work but a few minutes in, His music just cut out. Then suddenly, this voice memo starts playing. At first I honestly thought he was messing with me like one of those old troll clips with the super loud moaning sounds or whatever. But nope. It was definitely real it was a recording of Dorian and some woman, and things got… intimate real fast.
I’ve met his girlfriend before; she’s come by the office a few times. Unless she sounds entirely different in recordings, that wasn’t her voice I’m 100% positive on that.
I took the AirPods out immediately, handed them back to him, and said something like, “I think it’s something wrong with them.” I tried to brush it off casual. He just said “Oh” and went back to work.
In the days since, he’s been completely cold. Avoids eye contact, barely talks to me. And now I feel uneasy.. like somehow I’m the one at fault.. even though I didn’t choose to hear it and didn’t listen on purpose.
I haven’t told anyone, and I’m not going to. It’s not my business, and I don’t want to be the office gossip. But now there’s this weird tension every day. I’m torn between whether I should apologize again or just act like nothing happened and hope the weirdness fades. Or should I inform his GF about this privately I need help.
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I feel like I accidentally walked into something I wasn’t meant to hear, and it’s made work incredibly awkward. I wasn’t eavesdropping, I didn’t mean for it to happen..and now I’m stuck wondering if I was in the wrong.
I’m 20 yrs old ( turning 21 in a few months)and I work in a really small office ( internship btw but they still pay me) with open desk space. The other day, I forgot my earbuds at home and had a bunch of shit to get through. I asked my coworker Dorian if I could borrow his AirPods. He said yes, no hesitation, just handed them over.
The AirPods was still paired to his phone but I didn’t really care because we have the same music taste just vibing to Ivoxygen while doing work but a few minutes in, His music just cut out. Then suddenly, this voice memo starts playing. At first I honestly thought he was messing with me like one of those old troll clips with the super loud moaning sounds or whatever. But nope. It was definitely real it was a recording of Dorian and some woman, and things got… intimate real fast.
I’ve met his girlfriend before; she’s come by the office a few times. Unless she sounds entirely different in recordings, that wasn’t her voice I’m 100% positive on that.
I took the AirPods out immediately, handed them back to him, and said something like, “I think it’s something wrong with them.” I tried to brush it off casual. He just said “Oh” and went back to work.
In the days since, he’s been completely cold. Avoids eye contact, barely talks to me. And now I feel uneasy.. like somehow I’m the one at fault.. even though I didn’t choose to hear it and didn’t listen on purpose.
I haven’t told anyone, and I’m not going to. It’s not my business, and I don’t want to be the office gossip. But now there’s this weird tension every day. I’m torn between whether I should apologize again or just act like nothing happened and hope the weirdness fades. Or should I inform his GF about this privately I need help.
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I borrowed my coworker’s AirPods at work, and while using them, I accidentally overheard a private voice memo playing from his phone. I gave them back and didn’t say anything about what I heard, but now he’s acting cold toward me. I’m wondering if I was wrong to use someone else’s AirPods in the first place, knowing they’re linked to their phone or if I made it worse by not being fully honest when I returned them. That’s why I’m questioning if I was the asshole.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NAH but slight YTA in your conclusions. To be honest, you are right in not even touching the subject, but unless you are a qualified sound engineer with expertise in human voice recognition, you don’t know it wasn’t her GF or even some weird porn.
You are doing the right thing regardless of your initial conclusion. Just avoid the subject.
To some extent, NAH. I mean, if he’s cheating he’s an AH, but as it stands you don’t really know and aren’t entitled to know if he’s cheating or if he has an open relationship or if it was an old recording or what. Makes sense that you’re both a bit embarrassed, but I’d just try to put it behind you.
NTA
Act like nothing happened, not your place to say anything especially not knowing all the facts.
NTA. Ignore the whole thing. He’ll think he had a lucky escape.
You aren’t an AH for accidentally overhearing anything (as your title asks). But you don’t need to do anything with what you heard — you aren’t certain whose voice you heard, and the recording wasn’t intended for your ears. Go about your life and hope that the tension lessens between you and your coworker.
NTA
NTA…you dont really know who you heard. You dont really know the context of his relationship. Unless you think he may have been trying to somehow use this as a way to get involved with you in a sexual way just let sleeping dogs lay and just let time go on.
I think I’m more grossed out by you using someone else’s Airpods, and him letting you.
YTA for forgetting your own and borrowing someone else’s.
>In the days since, he’s been completely cold. Avoids eye contact, barely talks to me.
All of that is equally as likely to be him embarrassed about playing the memo at all, nothing to do with cheating.
There’s weird tension because that is what you are putting out. You are correct. You should not have heard that (hopefully because I don’t know if he could have done that intentionally) but more importantly, you need to let it go and stop letting it freak you out because it will only go away when you accept it is what it is.
Can AirPods really work that way? When I’m using mine and record a voice memo, my music cuts out but I don’t hear anything through them.
NAH. You’re both just uncomfortable. You weren’t trying to expose anything. He’s probably just humiliated.
Maybe his fav porn was playing? NTA
NTA You didn’t do anything wrong. He knows that you know. He doesn’t want to raise it with you because he doesn’t know how you will react. Since you are the intern… the best course of action would be to take him out for coffee and casually mention that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
NTA and this is one of those forget that it happened situations.
NAH. But stop here. For all you know this was a video before he met his current girlfriend. And you have no business knowing the boundaries of his relationship regarding having that.
It’s a way too much information about a coworker situation for sure, tbh, if I was you – I’d be the one avoiding him. Just cuz bro, why you letting someone use your headphones and you know it and you don’t have that video on lockdown. And if he know it played, he should address the elephant in the room don’t be avoidant lol. I mean he doesn’t have to maybe but I would just be like, not really buddies w this particular coworker cuz he made it awkward. But that’s just me. 😂
NTA
Tell his GF.
If this is causing or could cause issues at work, alert HR.
He might played it for you on purpose to see if he could score with you. now it is awkward it did not work.
I’d tell his girlfriend.
If it was her she’ll be embarrassed but they’ll get over it.
If it wasn’t her you’re saving her from a relationship with a cheating asshole.
Let it go.
You jumped to cheating when it could be at least 3 other things not cheating.
Act normal.
If the dude put on porn or you got wind of what his girl sounds like in flagrante delecto, I am sure he is embarrassed.
Let it go.
NTA. You accidently overhead something private and immediately returned the air pods when you realized what was happening. You didn’t snoop or listen intentionally. Your coworker is being weird because he’s embarrassed and probably worried you’ll tell people. His awkwardness doesn’t mean you did something wrong, just unfortunate timing.
YTA. Don’t ask to borrow people’s earbuds, they’ll be too polite to say no but it’s mega gross. DEFINITELY don’t listen to music on their device. honestly this is some freak behaviour and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was deliberately trolling you
Stay in your lane and worry about yourself.
>The AirPods was still paired to his phone but didn’t really care because we have the same music taste
This is insane and honestly kind of what makes YTA in my opinion. He agreed to let you borrow his earbuds (gross), not use them to listen to his phone. He didn’t realize you were listening to his device and played a video. Might not even have been a video of him, you’re just assuming it was. You gave him the earbuds back immediately so he knew what you heard and now it’s fucking awkward.
You made it awkward by not pairing them to your own device.
NTA. Everybody just feels weird about it right now. Break the ice somehow. If you know like a candy bar or something that he likes, get him one and leave it on his desk and say “hey thanks for the AirPods the other day here you go buddy” and just walk off. Completely ignore the situation and act like nothing ever happened. It’ll help you guys move past it pretty fast.
NAH – you don’t know for sure if it was or wasn’t his gf. It’s not your place to assume, just let it go tbh