Employee stops shady coworker from taking credit for her work in front of the CEO: '[She] tried to claim my 15-page report as her own'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Feb 3, 2025 4:00 PM EST

Taking credit for someone else's work almost always backfires. It's simply not worth the risk. 

Most people learn this in middle school during their first big group project. Personally speaking, I was unsurprisingly the type of person who took on the majority of work during group projects, for better or for worse. Sometimes, it wasn't even about slackers in the group. It was often coming from a place of not wanting to inconvenience others by making them put in their fair share of effort. Perhaps it was also coming from a lack of trust in the abilities of my fellow classmates. Either way, it wasn't a good look. Still, at the very least, I would never allow someone to take full credit for my work. Even in middle school, I would draw the line there. 

Clearly, some entitled people grow up without having considered the consequences of passing off someone else's work as their own…

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    Cash Flow "How was your little tete-a-tete with our Boss?"
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Here, we have a nepo-baby who was hired solely because of a personal connection to the CEO of a company. To make matters worse, this coworker didn't just stop there. She also tried to impress the CEO by pretending that a report entirely written by another employee was her work. When she was caught in the act not even the CEO could defend her actions.

  • 02
    This was a young woman who only got her job (especially made for her) because her dad was golfing buddies with our CEO.
    via Aiku
  • 03
    She regularly blamed her team for her numerous mistakes, and took all the credit for their hard work. Let's call her B☐
    via Aiku
  • 04
    I used to do trade shows and after the fall season would be back in the office and create a comprehensive report on the results of the shows, normally 15+ pages. The Veeps always wanted paper reports, not attachments, so I normally printed them out and distributed them personally to the staff.
    via Aiku
  • 05
    I handed B her copy as we B[ passed in the corridor, then watched in sheer amazement as she marched straight into the CEO's office and said, I kid you not;
    via Aiku
  • 06
    "Here Boss, I just put this together for you". Stunning, the report was all about trade shows, and she wasn't even in the same department!
    via Aiku
  • 07
    5988 % MC MR M-M+ MU 27 S/AC 8 2 00 63 Comparison of Competitors UNIT SALES TRENDS Company A 2013 2014 505.155 $48485 Company B $363.236 Company C 1404.078 $585.842 2015 2016 2017 06.550 7073 5626.348 06372 $506.3.30 505.348 505.355 $747,459 28214 $900,000 $700,000 $600,000 $500,000 $400,000 $300,000 $200,000 $100,000 2013 2914 3015 2016 2017 UDGET PLANNER SALES COMPARISON QUANTITY Company A Company " 九 Company C • 5 32 25 34 " 30 NO 27 2014 2015 2016 2017
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 08
    Cue the revenge, I marched in there right after her, and said "Oh, B[ I just realized that my report has some numerical errors, let me have it back and I'll get you a revised one", all the while staring at the CEO with a slightly raised eyebrow.
    via Aiku
  • 09
    As I left, I heard the most wonderful words from the CEO: "Aiku, would you please close the door as you leave?"
    via Aiku
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    ]came out about five minutes later looking like a ripe tomato. I couldn't resist asking "How was your little tete-a-tete with our Boss?"
    via Aiku

  • Several members of the online community congratulated the employee for thinking on their feet and standing up for themselves in front of the intimidating presence of their CEO. Keep scrolling below to see what they had to say about this!

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    Disorderly_Chaos ⚫ My dad's coworker tried to steal his programming code and take credit. At the meeting concerning the allegations... my dad asked why this guys variables were named after people in our family. AKA
    via Aiku
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    Find Product [INT]$Riker = 9*9 [INT]$Picard = 10*10
    via Aiku
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    ChainsawArmLaserBear. That's up, but I would hate working with your dad lol Variable names help understand the code
    via Aiku
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    cabird78 And that, kids, is how you professionally take down a credit-stealing coworker.
    via Aiku
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    DhibeCakes55. She regularly blamed her team for her numerous mistakes, and took all the credit for their hard work. Let's call her I don't even need to read the rest to know this .. is gonna be good...
    via Aiku
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    deadeyeAZ. I went to a meeting about some very detailed data I had gathered while working with a "team". This involved months of some very involved measurements over long
    via Aiku
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    periods of time being correlated to specific testing parameters. Lo and behold all of my work was presented with "we don't know who did this but this is great!" I
    via Aiku
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    stood up and said "Well I do, it was me" and looked at the "team lead" who had not given me any credit for it. My revenge was years later when he got walked out after three decades of working for that company.
    via Aiku

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terrible coworkers boss employee work stories work coworkers petty revenge ceo overworked-employees funny work stories
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