'Maybe It’s a Glitch?': Employee sabotages their own spreadsheet in order to expose slothful coworker who hasn't been doing any own work

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Sep 25, 2024 6:00 PM EDT

There's nothing worse in the workplace than being stuck with a slothful coworker who refuses to do any of their own work and is constantly asking you to help with their workload. Meanwhile, you know that if you were to refuse to help, you'd just be seen by the rest of the workplace as "unhelpful" or "not a team player," somehow earning you a negative reputation despite it being their shortcoming. Further, calling attention to the issue directly to your boss will probably result in a "he said, she said" or "meet somewhere in the middle" type of talk as your boss tries to dodge handling the issue like bullets in "The Matrix."

This leaves you with very little recourse, just about the only thing you can do is wait for your coworker to hoist themself by their own petard and do everything you can to help them along the way. That's exactly what this worker did when their coworker, "Seth," made every attempt to get out of doing their own work. Of course, when the worker did their coworker's work incorrectly, it sent the coworker scrambling in front of a client, bringing the issue to an unignorable head.