Employee purposefully locks coworkers out of shared work PC after they fail to log out when leaving shift, leading to an office dispute: ‘They had to reset their passwords’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jun 9, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

Every workplace that consists of a morning shift and a night shift is familiar with the never-ending feud between morning shift workers and night shift workers. Even though they all work at the same place, sometimes the conflict between the two shifts is too big to bridge. Take restaurant workers, for example. Those who work the night shift always leave the place spotless when they leave. They scrub the kitchen counters, clean the floors, and throw out all the trash. But when the morning shift leaves, they never do any of that. They simply sign off, letting the next shift deal with whatever mess they left behind. 

Since you don't really work with the people who handle the other shift, you simply see them when you pass each other at the door, it is easy to resent them for everything they leave behind as you clock in. And since you can't really talk to them about it, the only thing you can do is leave signs for them to find when they return the next day.

Which is exactly what happened in the story below.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10514803968
    via Andrea Piacquadio

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

  • 02

    I locked my co-workers password on purpose

    I'm a check in person at an Urgent Care. I have a shared PC that the night shift uses as well. Rather than completely log off like they are supposed
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 03
    to they just lock the PC when they leave. So when I come in, in the morning, when I try and swipe my badge it asks for my password which I get wrong
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 04
    several times because the night shift person is still logged on. It takes me a min to realize what's happening, then
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 05
    swapping the user, then being able to start my day. So The last few days its happened I purposefully get their password wrong until their account is locked. That way
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 06
    the first they have to do when they come in is call IS (Information Services) to have their password reset. When they complained after the 3rd day when they came
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 07
    in to swap with me as I was leaving, I simply said "sorry didn't realize you left yourself logged in, and I kept trying my password"
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 08
    We will see if they remember to actually log off the PC tonight.
    via Arthur-reborn

  • Not only is it completely unsafe to leave your work account unlocked when you leave, but in this case, it also messes with the coworkers coming in to the next shift, and as we learned, resentment is inevitable.

    Luckily, this employee found the best way to leave a sign to these coworkers, which ensures they never repeat this mistake again.

  • 09
    Agitated_Basket7778 Weaponizing their own stupidity. Bravo!
    via Agitated_Basket7778
  • 10
    CipherBlackTango So does this have any impact on a patient seeing a doctor, as you are in urgent care?
    via CipherBlackTango
  • 11
    Arthur-reborn OP nope, there are multiple people to check in patients. We all use the same desks every day though.
    via Arthur-reborn
  • 12
    Cheezburger Image 10514807808
    via Real Window Media

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

  • 13
    minertyler100 I work in IT and honestly I might do that just to teach people to log off because it's good business practice to always log off a shared computer when done.
    via minertyler100
  • 14
    National Pension_110 They should definitely be logging out so if your intervention makes that happen, good for you. The equivalent of a digital hand slap.
    via National_Pension_110
  • 15
    NavySh ter_NS That is a perfectly petty solution to an inconsiderate co-worker.
    via NavySh**ter_NS
  • 16
    PuzzleheadedAct3431 I work in healthcare as well and when my team leave their computers unlock, I flip their screens upside down. And watch them squirm trying to figure it out
    via PuzzleheadedAct3431
  • 17
    Momof3CMM You will get fired for this if reported. Changing user is nothing. You are being malicious.
    via Momof3CMM
  • 18
    underhand_toss Maybe that's the case where you work. Where I work, it's the responsibility of the user to log off, not the responsibility of the next user. The co- worker would get disciplined if IT reported the repeated lockouts to InfoSec.
    via underhand_toss
  • 19
    Momof3CMM Exactly. OP is the one that is repeatedly locking the other person out. OP is not locked out when they get there. They just have to change users to log in. It's simple.
    via Momof3CMM
  • 20
    Arthur-reborn OP It's actually policy to reboot the PC at the end of your shift, to make sure any updates are properly applied.
    via Arthur-reborn

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shift workplace-stories employee job tales-from-the-workplace coworkers password reddit story petty revenge night shift computer overworked-employees workplace Reddit company
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