This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/ayushdesaidakleindia on 2023-07-29 19:00:59.

So I am 26, have been in my company for 3 years, I am in sales and the colleague in this case let’s call him J is in customer support.

Everything was going good but problems started around last year J started asking money from saying he was going through financial trouble, he had become a good friend and since I was making significantly higher than him (which he knew) so I gave him the money he was asking. That’s when it started, first it were small amounts then it gradually increased, I too kept giving because he returned the amount he borrowed on time as soon as we got our salary. Around 4 months back I had to buy a new laptop, phone, earbuds all together since everything I owned had become 4-5 yrs old I wanted to spend and enjoy. Due to this I did not have a lot of spare cash that month and did not want break my savings so I said No to J when he asked me to loan him a significant amt (around 35% of my monthly salary) he immediately pointed out that I earn more than him and am single and have my own house while he is married, has a small child and lives on rent and I should thus help him out.

He said I am the only colleague who considers his friend and he cannot ask anyone else for the same. He failed to return the money on time the first time since he started borrowing from me, 1 more month passed theresfter too. I did not pester him, he borrowed 2 more times without paying anything back and 2 weeks ago I and a few other colleagues were having coffee break and were planning a small trip on the weekend to celebrate and relax after a hectic month. One colleague said he would not be able to come, on digging we knew he was short on cash since he loaned J some money and I felt so betrayed that I blurted out that J took a loan from me too, this opened the flood gates and it turns out J has taken loan from nearly half of the office. This word got to HR dept soon and J had a rough meeting with HR where he was told tht while the company cannot force him to pay up to us and other members who loaned to him, he would be fired if this goes on to not frthr spoil the cmpny envrnmnt.

He immediately came to me when we were leaving the office at day end and first accused me of telling others that he borrowed from me and then demanded another loan so he could pay up to colleagues whose payments were pending since quite some time so he does not lose his job.I made a pretty good incentive last moth and had a lot of spare cash in my account but I told him no and that I feel exploited by him and it is not my fault he earns less then me or cannot manage his finances better. He started crying m, told me I was inhuman and he got mouths to feed.

AITA for blurting out the he borrowed from me too and also to tell him no this time even though I had the cash to spare?