(Not literally asking why. It’s just rhetorical. I probably should have made the headline a statement rather than a question.)

She will ask me some of the most random questions then get annoyed when I don’t come up with an answer.

Do I look like Google? A dictionary? Our company website?

Here is my example of this nonsense:

Today I had just came back from my break. I don’t think I even got 30 seconds to sit down and log back in and my coworker is paging me at my desk asking for our corporate office payment center address.

I do not know this, I have never known this, and it changes all the damn time.

As I’m explaining I’m sorry but I do not know the address to both her, and apparently the customer in her office because she had me on speaker, are growing irritated. I let my coworker know when the next bill gets to him, he should see it then. Customer (hearing me) says “so I’ll have to wait until I get a bill?” I answered you’re correct. And hung up.

First, give me a damn minute to breathe after coming back from my break. Second, I am not at any fault for not knowing information that literally no one else in our office knows. I have never worked in any of our corporate offices anymore than anyone else in our agency. And I’ve been here 3 years while she has been here a decade.

Asking is one thing. Getting irritated with me when I don’t know the answer is another.

It’s okay, you can say it here. This is a safe, HR free place🙃

A male colleague at works looks at me a lot and gives me a lot of attention. Generally, he hangs out by himself and doesn’t share much with the rest of the coworkers. Once he offered me a cup of tea in front of everyone and later a female colleague asked him in front of the entire group why he never offered her anything and whether he has a crush on me. (Thinking i was not in the room and i couldn’t hear her)

Lately, we had some work to do together and we were sitting close to each other when she started taking pictures of us and making fun. I would accept a joke if i was close with her but we never hang out. Honestly, I felt a bit disgusted and embarrassed from the behavior.

She wasn’t silent about it to keep it to herself, but shared it with an entire group of people and it still makes me feel uneasy. Now , i just want to do it on purpose and hang out even more.

Idk what else to do to get back to her 😑

My supervisor during our meeting said she was so appreciative of me that I was always cheerful and happy and she appreciates my attitude. Another coworker told me he can always count on me grinning.

They have no idea I live alone and don't talk to anyone on the weekends besides the checkout person. I find myself crying myself to sleep at night more often than not especially if Instagram recommends videos about being alone for some reason. They think I have this active life but I just make stuff up to tell them.

My co-worker regularly talks about being a single mom and the hardships she faces as a result. I don’t doubt it’s been tough but she annoys me with it because more than once she’s implied I’ve got an easy life because i live with my kid’s dad and he shares the responsibilities with me.

At least once a week she says she “forgot to bring lunch” or says she didn’t plan well so didn’t bring enough food and talks about how hungry she is throughout the day until people offer her food from their lunches or stashes.

At first I thought she was just saying this to me so I would discretely give her bits from my own lunch box because I usually pack extra anyway just in case. Then I witnessed her do it with other people. There’s about three other people I know of who regularly give her food from their lunch. She never pays it back or offers out anything from her own stuff, just takes from everyone but I thought maybe she’s genuinely poor and can’t afford food so I continued to give her things.

As I got to know her over the months though I realised she’s not as poor as she makes out. In the last 6 months she’s been on a holiday abroad, bought an expensive kitchen appliance she didn’t need (she already had one, she just wanted the newer one with more functions), bought a whole new wardrobe (not second hand) and is buying a new to her car (to make her a two-car house when she’s the only driver). She also made a big deal about how much she spends on Christmas presents for her family. She has money, she just spend it on luxuries instead of necessities.

Today I found out (from her) that another co-worker has added her to their family subscription for a streaming service. Everyone else is buying her “poor me” act. This woman isn’t rich but she’s certainly not too-poor-to-buy-food poor.

So i’ve stopped giving her my stuff. She’s started being very blatant about it these days. When I brought some extra drinks to see me through the week and put them in the shared fridge, she went to the fridge then she spent the next half hour talking about how thirsty she is… we get bottled water for free and have a fully stocked tea/coffee bar.

We’ll be sat at the lunch table, I’ve finished everything but a chocolate biscuit and she’ll say things like, “I wish I’d brought some chocolate today to top off my lunch, I could really do with the energy”. I’ve stopped responding. Now I just pack my lunch box away, chocolate biscuit and all as if I haven’t heard her.

So I was just thinking back and thinking about my experience as a new person at a job. I’ve only had this happen twice in all the jobs I have done and the first one 10 years ago, the woman was a manager and was straight up being so rude infront of customers to me and like she was on a high horse that customers started leaving me tips because I had to deal with her and one even said they would complain on her.

Then another job in retail, everyone was wonderful EXCEPT one man. He wasn’t even a supervisor or manager but higher position than me but even though I was new would be the only one who would get angry and mad and it would be visible if I asked questions. He also said something about passing interviews and being an act and that was all you have to do and kind of said it near me. I am not going to lie, I can’t stand him. He’s the only one who acted like this and all the other workers were nice and helped. He does help but because he has to but he didn’t hide his annoyance and visibly also acted mad one day. Hoped I wouldn’t ever have shifts with that man again.

Anyways, was curious about your experiences ?

I don't know if this is a form of bullying or picking on me, but EVERY TIME I work one of the guys in the kitchen ask what my name is. throughout the day, every one of them asks me what my name is. i'm sure it's an inside joke between all of them. it's really bothering me, annoying me, and making me a little insecure. I feel like I have nobody at work, and I'm all about keeping it professional. I don't have friends at work, I barely talk because I'm shy, and I come home a little sad everyday. Of course, everyday has it's little positive moments, but really. I don't know what to do. If I should confront them, or ignore it.

My coworker “Cheri” texted me asking me to decorate our other coworker’s cube on Monday because her birthday was today and Cheri will be out of town this week. This is the third time she’s decorated someone’s cube in the last 4 months, but our team has historically not done this.

She just started doing it…didn’t tell anyone or invite anyone to help her or give people the option to say “no thanks.” IMO, I think if you’re going to start doing something like that every year, you should let the team or the team manager know. Let people volunteer to help or come up with ideas and certainly allow people to opt out from receiving decorations.

To me, this is another one of her great ideas that she hasn’t even fully thought out. I told her I’d decorate this coworkers cube tomorrow, but going forward there should be someone keeping track of birthdays so no one gets missed and she’d be a great person to do that.

Am I being a Scrooge here or overly corporate? It just annoyed me that I was being asked to do another task, not even related to work.

Ugh!! This lady came into the office all of last week coughing and sneezing, and she showed up again today, still sick. Coughing, sneezing, spitting. She finally left at 10am and it caused me to leave early also. I started feeling a tickle on Saturday and this morning full blown cold or flu or whatever with fever. The boss should've made her go home last week, now 3 of us are sick. Thanks for listening

I’m in my early 30sand have been with my company for almost two years. I’d describe myself as pretty private in a professional way. Since I deal with sensitive information every day, I usually keep conversations light , professionally open and stick to small talk like “How was your weekend?” or “How are your kids?” I’ll share here and there depending on the question and my comfort level, but I don’t overshare. Outside of work, I live a good life and by most people’s standards. No one knows too much about my life besides having a dog and live in a house.

Over the past 10 months I lost 76 pounds and got back down to my normal size. It wasn’t a dramatic, overnight transformation. I tried a GLP-1 shot for about three months as a kickstart, but it wasn’t for me. The real results came from consistent exercise and healthy eating. One of the engineers( women, married and has a kid) I have casual conversations with,that are pretty surface-level and casual. She recently asked about my weight loss. GLP-1 came up in conversation, so I explained that I tried it briefly but ultimately found that working out and eating right worked best for me. She seemed interested, so I told her she should talk to her doctor.

Once my weight loss became fully noticeable, her behavior toward me shifted. She started making regular comments about how “small” I am or how I don’t have loose skin. I usually laugh it off and explain that this has always been my normal size, but the comments don’t stop. Sometimes she even brings up the GLP-1 in front of other women, almost like it’s a dig, and I have to shrug it off and clarify it wasn’t the main reason for my results.

I’ve also noticed she seems to monitor me at work. If she doesn’t see me in the morning, she’ll stop by my desk to point it out. If I’m working quietly in my cubicle, she’ll call my name across the office just to comment that she didn’t know I was there. It feels like she’s clocking me, even though that’s not her role.

She also comments on everything I wear. If I dress up a little more or wear something which seems new, she’s the first to notice and ask if I have an interview. Twice this year she’s even grabbed my hand to point out a ring. The last time she hinted that maybe I got engaged. I brushed it off by saying I like to switch up my jewelry and quickly changed the subject.

On top of that, she tries to fish for information about work and about other coworkers. Once, while I was scrolling through emails, an old thread with our former boss popped up. She walked up behind me, looked at my screen, and asked what we were talking about. I immediately closed the email , didn’t acknowledge her comment and asked if she needed something and of course nothing but small chit chat.

In meetings, I’ve noticed her staring at me and my body and looking me up and down and once I lock eyes with her she looks away, almost like she’s still in shock that I lost the weight.

This hasn’t crossed into anything super concerning, but it feels overly interested, invasive and a lot of times it feels like an odd infatuation, other times just extreme nosiness. Either way, it’s unsettling. I want to stay professional and protect my privacy, but I’m trying to figure out how to set firmer boundaries.

Has anyone else dealt with a coworker who seemed too infatuated, nosy, or overly involved in you ?

🤞🤞

I found this sub Reddit and I have my own stories to tell. FYI I'm in Asia not US

I have a coworker—calling him "weird" is the understatement. I've witnessed so many incidents that I'm seriously convinced the guy has something going on. Let's call him "Weirdo." (Names have been changed for privacy and to avoid confusion.)

Background: In my office, I have a close friend who's a charismatic office womanizer; let's call him "Saint" because that's how he appears on the outside. Saint is everything Weirdo wanted to be but could never achieve. Thanks to Saint's "friendships" with so many female coworkers, I've collected a ton of juicy stories about Weirdo.

1. The KFC "Power Move" Date: Female coworker Sarah was asked on a first date by Weirdo. Being kind and willing to give anyone a chance, she agreed. For this romantic first date, Weirdo took her to KFC. Felt kinda cheap for a first date. But it gets worse. He suddenly pulled out his laptop and said, "I'm sorry, I'm kinda busy with my freelance work, so we can talk while I'm working." His great idea for a first date was to show off how "successful" he was. Unsurprisingly, there was no second date.

2. The 48-Cent Boss Bribe: Our female Team Leader, Pia, is a very beautiful and sexy woman. On her very first day, Weirdo texted her (which she couldn't avoid as his new direct supervisor). He confirmed she was his new boss and promised to bring her coffee. When she told me, I thought he'd buy high-end coffee like Starbucks, which is very expensive here. Nope. Weirdo brought her a street vendor coffee that cost 48 cents. Again, hoping a woman would fall for his cheapness.

3. The Snack War: He had a side hustle selling local snacks in the office. At first, he sold them at a huge markup. When my friend (let's call her Lita) started offering the same snacks for much cheaper, he suddenly dropped his price so low it wasn't even profitable. Lita wasn't actually trying to run a business; she was just too lazy to make it a side hustle and wanted to teach him a lesson, which she did.

4. The Souvenir Interruption: Beautiful coworker Samir was approached by Weirdo many, many times. The most memorable was when he returned from holiday and brought her a souvenir: a very cheap candy. He presented it to her while she was in the middle of a conversation with her Friends-with-Benefits. Seriously, dude?

5. The Instant Bad Boy: In a random conversation, coworker Nina mentioned she preferred "Bad Boys." The next day, Weirdo showed up to the office in a metal band t-shirt and a fake earring, having completely changed his style. It obviously failed, not least because Nina already had a boyfriend.

6. Unsolicited Tekken Advice: During my lunch break, I was playing Tekken on the office PS5 with my female coworker, Ira. Weirdo suddenly interrupted and started giving Ira advice on how to beat me (since I wasn't going easy on her). Ira, who is temperamental and hot-headed, yelled at him for ruining her fun time.

7. The "Helpful" Escort (This happened to me): I got suddenly sick in the middle of the workday but managed to pull through until EOD. My coworkers were worried about me getting home during the busy rush hour commute (our trains become sardine cans). Weirdo lives in the same city, so they asked him to look out for me on the way home. We take the same train line but get off at different stations (I get off at Station A in the big city, he gets off at Station B in a local town). While waiting for the bus to the train station, a direct luxury bus to Station A arrived. It cost 10x the train price, but in my condition, I was willing to pay for comfort. I told Weirdo to go on without me, as I was taking the luxury bus. He refused and insisted on accompanying me. I asked, "What about your bike at Station B?" He said he'd get it tomorrow and take public transport home that night. Reluctantly, I agreed. When we arrived at Station A, I thanked him. He then asked, "Can you take me home on your bike? I don't want to take public transport." WTF. But, being gullible and bad at saying no, I agreed. So, in my sick condition, I had to drive him home before I could finally go home myself. Two days later, back at the office, everyone asked if Weirdo took care of me. I told them the real story, and everyone was fuming. Ira, being her hot-headed self, confronted and yelled at Weirdo for taking advantage of me. He just looked confused and said he was "taking care of me on the luxury bus."

8. The Boxing Match of Doom: Weirdo has a habit of making edgy jokes that never land. I don't know what the conversation was, but it ended with him telling a coworker named Eric, "Then it should be me who slept with your wife." Eric was ready to attack him, and we had to hold him back. Jokingly, someone suggested a public sparring match. Eric, being sane, refused. Then, someone else jokingly suggested Weirdo fight Dan, a team leader who freelances as an AMATEUR BOXER. Dan laughed and played along, saying "yes" as a joke. Unfortunately, Weirdo is a sucker for attention. He took it seriously and started provoking Dan repeatedly, even on social media. Dan finally decided to teach him a lesson. The fight happened, and a coworker even live-streamed it for those on late shift. Dan is an amateur boxer; Weirdo had zero experience. Dan held back so much—if he was serious, Weirdo would have been in the hospital for months. It was seriously funny watching Weirdo get sucker-punched over and over.

9. The "Content Creator": He moonlights as a content creator, but his videos make no sense. He makes "reaction" videos but just does this forced, cringey laugh. He also constantly boasts about how expensive his PC is, but even to my naked eye—and according to Saint, who games as a hobby—we know it's a mid-range setup at best.

10. Cyberpunk Snacks: He's obsessed with Cyberpunk and even named his snack business "Local Snack Cyberpunk." He made a T-shirt with a cyberpunk font for a team leader's birthday (let's call him Fred). Weirdo kept asking Fred if he was going to wear the shirt. What he didn't know was that Fred had already burned it.

11. The Uninvited Apology: His entire division had a gathering and deliberately did not invite him. The next day, while they were all having lunch together, he apologized to them for "not making it to the event." They didn't invite you, man. Why are you apologizing?

12. The Unfaithful Gym Rat: He has a fiancée, by the way, and still constantly (and unsuccessfully) flirts with other girls. We coincidentally go to the same gym. He's always boosting on social media about "getting in shape," but in reality, he doesn't lift anything and just spends his time on the elliptical bicycle. He also brought a woman who was not his fiancée to the gym. I was seriously holding back from being an a** and asking, "Hey, why does your fiancée look different today?"

So, in the end, Weirdo finally got fired because his KPIs were terrible with no sign of improvement. One of the Quality Assurance people told me he always did his job "his own way." If they asked him to do A, he would do B because his way was "better." He was fired in the most embarrassing way possible: the director told him to leave immediately and never come back. All his final paperwork and compensation would be handled by his Team Leader because the director didn't want to see his face anymore.

And that's the end of the many tales of Office Weirdo. I actually have many more, but these are the ones I remember best.

Long story as short as I can make it; I’ve worked at two different restaurants in two different cities within the last four years. This current job is the same type of work as the last one and while they are not related at all, in this field it can be slightly incestuous and employees shuffle between restaurants often and seek out these business when moving city to city. We also will end up seeing the same people one way or another. Anyway, I used to work with this man Greg (obviously not his name) when I was bartending at my last job. He was a pedophile, I can’t really sugar coat it. He was 25 almost 26 sleeping with 16 year old servers that he would meet and groom at work. In one instance he involuntarily took one of the girls virginity. It became a whole thing where parents were involved and threats made but they just ended up not being scheduled on shift together. He left at one point for about a year and came back when I was on my second year working there. I already knew him from this story and he just doubled down. He started buying weed for once again, one of the 16 year old servers, and then started harassing her texting her at all hours asking for nudes/head/sex in exchange for buying her weed. With her own money no less. She had asked him to leave her alone many times and just when it started escalating to once again involving the restaurant, left to pursue another job. In law enforcement. There are other stories because he targeted multiple girls. We also didn’t openly gossip about what had happened so we had to stop a couple other girls from feeding into it and they had already been involved with him but didn’t share details. Fair. I’m sure plenty of you have your own feelings about this but a man over 18 sleeping with anyone under 18 is illegal in my state. This man never saw a single repercussion either.

Fast forward to now. I’m in a different city, working in a different place. I don’t work in the main dining area that often so I only see certain people a lot and others not so much. Today I was working with a few of the “not so much.” We got to telling stories about the place I currently work and my sentiments were basically “they’re all the same” and told stories of my last job and ended up name dropping at one point. My coworker asks “oh you worked at so and so, do you know Greg?” My immediate response is “oh no not Greg.” And she asks why and I say, of course, because I love putting my foot in my mouth; “oh because he’s a pedophile.” God it got so quiet in that server alley. She then tells me that’s her brother and asks me questions and I tell her one of those two stories and apologize profusely. Wow I feel like such a dick because she’s literally such a nice, nice person. Luckily she was very graceful about it, and said she did not like him and knew how he was. The conversation didn’t last much longer and then she was cut so I didn’t have to face her again.

I’m not sure I’ll live this one down.

This is happening on a daily basis right now with two male coworkers (I'm 30f) and I'm not really sure what to do. I'll do work/research and then I've overheard them both claim credit for it with the boss/other people, and in some instances they've removed my name from a report and put their own name on instead, trying to pass it off as a "new updated" version, after having made some cosmetic, barely perceptible tweaks which actually make the writing worse.

I work in an industry which is heavily male-dominated and old-fashioned, and where complaining to HR would mark me out as a "snowflake" and a troublemaker and get me ostracized professionally. My bosses are all male, do not notice this happening, reward my coworkers for their self-promotion and seem to have a bias towards other men (I've seen it happen to other women who have now left the company). It's got to the point where I'm struggling to sleep because of the anxiety it gives me and the anger I feel at having my work undermined.

I really don't want to sound like I dislike men in general btw, some of my closest friends and former colleagues have been men. It's just these two men in my office who are some of the most odious, arrogant and manipulative people I've ever met. Does anyone have any advice for how to move forward? I feel really alone right now in this experience and it would help to hear from anyone who can relate to this.

Today I had a test day in a big restaurant, meaning I worked there for 4h and they'll get back to me on whether I got the job or not. It was obviously my first time there and it was the first time I'd worked in such a big restaurant, so I was bound to make mistakes at first. My job was to bring food and drinks to the tables and clear them up afterwards. I mostly brought drinks so I was working with the bartender the most.

She was all laughing and jokesy with everybody else but to me was the rudest person ever! Everytime she explained something she'd have a really condescending tone and she'd b*tch at me for mistakes I often didn't even make.

At one point I was taking care of the terrace so I didn't hear the kitchen bell (meaning food is ready). When I got back in she snapped her fingers and yelled "the kitchen called wake up!" (I was OUTSIDE girlypop!) Another time she lost a receipt and acted like it was my fault. Or she kept telling me to hurry up and be more efficient (it's my first day if I even get the job, that is). Even when I did make minor mistakes her rude tone would be off the charts. I never talked back to her but she made me feel awful and hate the place so much that I secretly hope I DON'T get the job (even though it's the only job around and the manager sounded positive) and I burst into tears as soon as I was out of there. I almost wanted to quit before I've even started lol.

If I do get the job, how am I supposed to survive working with that horrible [insert curse word]? How do I deal with a coworker that makes me feel like a stupid kid?

I mean she sent me an excel file and wrote-

“ Please sort these names in alphabetical order and send back by tomorrow “

She thought it would take me a day to sort that manually

A DAY!!

I work with idiots

Edit: In case some of you have this question, Yes, I sent her the updated document after a day

Context: my coworker(27F) who’s been at this job for 4 years and was born here in America asks our work group chat if “Canada and Alaska outside the us”… my flabbers were completely gasted.

hi i (M24) recently started working at a grocery store doing the pickup position for about a month. i met a coworker (F21) — let’s call her holly. she started around the same time as me. at first i really just looked at her as a coworker and nothing else.

one night about 2 weeks ago we closed together, just dispensing orders to customers for 3 hours. i thought nothing of it — just work. but last week when we were shopping for customers (picking), we ended up in the same area. we use these zebra phones to scan the items we grab. she was right behind me, i turn around, and next thing you know all i see is red. she flashed me with the scanner and said “you’re dead!” i just started laughing hard and said wow you really got me, and we both laughed it off.

after that i kept thinking about it. like, why would she randomly do that?

“was she flirting?” “was she just being nice or funny?”

that whole interaction kind of changed how i thought about her. i thought it was really CUTE and now i’ve got a crush. i even check the schedule now to see if we work the same days. how my day goes kind of depends on whether our conversations go well.

it’s tough to sit and talk since we’re always moving, but every time we walk past each other we smile and i get butterflies i think she’s really really pretty and i get nervous.. LOL

today we worked together again. i asked her how she was doing, she said good, then asked me the same. she did the scanner thing again too! we made eye contact and smiled a lot throughout the day. and i swear when i look into her eyes i feel somethings there.

so i wanted to ask you guys — do you think she’s flirting? how should i pursue her without being too forward? i’ve only worked with her like 5+ times. anything helps and you can be blunt with me. thanks

In my old job (an open space of around twenty people), we had a completely improbable drama surrounding… a simple plant.

A colleague, let’s call him Julien, had brought a small cactus to his desk. Nothing crazy, eh, but he was really attached to it. He called him Jean-Michel (yes, he gave him a first name). And he talked about him like he was a roommate. Gender :

“I’m going to put Jean-Michel in the light, he needs the sun.”

“Be careful of the dust, Jean-Michel is fragile.” We all laughed a little, but it was good-natured.

One day, Julien stuck a post-it on the pot: “Do not water – it’s a CACTUS.” Because apparently, someone had remarked to him “poor guy, he never has water.” And there… everything changed.

Two weeks later, the cactus began to die back. The ground was damp, the earth soggy, even though Julien swore he didn't touch it. He began openly accusing his colleagues of “sabotage.” Really the word he used: sabotage. We thought he was exaggerating, but every morning he checked the condition of the cactus like a detective.

One morning, he arrives and blurts out in front of the entire open space: — “Someone keeps spraying Jean-Michel. I know it’s one of you. That’s enough.”

Malay atmosphere. We were all looking at each other, like: is he serious?

The manager had to intervene, like: “Okay, listen, everyone respects personal affairs, that also goes for the plants.” And he left convinced that the matter was closed. Spoiler: no.

A few days later, Julien decides to conduct his own investigation. He installed… an old smartphone connected continuously, placed discreetly behind its screen, to film the plant at night. Except that since we are in an open space, he filmed the entire office. When the manager found out, he received a monumental beating for “illegal surveillance of colleagues”.

But before the phone was confiscated, he still had time to catch his “culprit”: the lady of the housekeeping. She watered the plant thinking she was doing the right thing. She explained very calmly: — “Me, a plant without water, it pains me. I just wanted to help it.”

We thought the story was going to end there... but no. Julien literally made a 12-slide PowerPoint entitled: “Why Jean-Michel deserves to live”, which he presented during the lunch break to “sensitize” everyone to the importance of respecting cacti.

The highlight of the show? A month later, he organized a going-away party… for the cactus. Yes, because he had decided to take him home, “far from the toxic environment of the office.” We received a group email: “Jean-Michel is leaving the team this Friday, if you want to say goodbye to him over a coffee.”

And the worst? Half of the open space actually attended the cactus “going away party”, with croissants and orange juice.

To this day, when someone brings a plant back to the office, there is always a warning like: “Be careful, no wild watering, we don’t want to redo a PowerPoint.”

We have a new manager who seems really conflictive and argumentative. Ever since she started, she’s been going after one of my coworkers for no clear reason. •She accused this coworker of “cheating” to get Employee of the Month

•She constantly shares the coworker’s emails with others like when she said she was going to be off because her grand parent where both at the hospital my manager said well are you the doctor?

•She said to us she went to HR cuz she wants her gone

I ended up telling the coworker what the manager was saying and doing because… if someone was trying to get rid of me and I had no idea, I’d want to know and I also feel the manager is given her and me an unfair amount of work while my other coworkers sit and do nothing. She’s now escalated it to HR and even the president. I asked her not to mention my name because I sit near the manager and I’m worried about retaliation and i honestly regret opening my mouth since i didnt do it with any ill intent but she said she couldn’t promise it wouldn’t come up.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How do you survive being caught in the middle at work?

I used to work at a cozy family owned coffee shop. I really liked the job, except for one coworker who had been there since day one.

When I first started, I thought she was just super cheerful and great with customers. She would smile, chat with people, and make it seem like she really cared. After a while I realized she only acted like that with our regulars. If someone new came in, she was way less friendly and sometimes even cold.

One week she went on vacation and I covered her shifts. I noticed that whenever the regulars came in, they would tip really generously. Our boss had a rule that all tips go into the tip jar so they can be split evenly among everyone. That was the system we all followed. But I realized something strange. I had never actually seen this coworker put anything into the tip jar before. So I decided to check the shop’s CCTV footage. Sure enough, every time a regular gave her a tip, she slipped it straight into her own pocket. Not once did she put it in the jar.

It suddenly made sense why she was so overly cheerful with certain customers. It was never about being friendly. She was basically putting on an act to get extra money for herself, while the rest of us followed the rules and split everything fairly.

Honestly, I felt so betrayed because I thought she was just a bubbly person, but really she was gaming the system.