‘Since when am I the HR fairy?’: Entitled coworker accuses colleague of stealing her promotion, despite failing to apply for the role to begin with

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Jul 1, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

Promotions? In this job market? What is this, a fairy tale?

In all seriousness, promotions are a big deal. As a corporate servant, you dedicate your life to climbing the hierarchical ladder to prove you are worthy of more money in your bank account. Thank you, capitalism! Other than the influx of green dough, feeling a newfound sense of purpose that comes along with new responsibilities is important. We're taught to work our whole lives to strive for greatness and be able to afford groceries without penny pinching when it's almost payday. So, when a promotional opportunity is under your nose, you take it.

That's what the employee in this next story does. Their coworker is not pleased, clearly because she wanted the promotion for herself. This worker did not have her eye out for open job listings at their company, however, so the verdict is that she couldn't have wanted it that bad. What do you think? We say that this employee won the promotion fair and square, especially after the argument that transpired between the two colleagues. Scroll below to read the full story.

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    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • "Entitled coworker thinks I ‘stole her promotion’ because I didn’t tell her about the opening"

    About three months ago, a position opened up at work for a team lead role. It wasn't heavily
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  • advertised, but it was listed on our internal job board. I applied, interviewed, and got it. Yay, right?
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  • Nope. A coworker, let's call her Megan, cornered me in the break room and accused me of "stealing" the role from her.
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  • Her exact words: "You knew I wanted that job. Why didn't you tell me it was open?"
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  • I reminded her it was posted like everything else and she has access to the board. Her response?
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  • "Yeah, but you're on it more. It would've been nice if you told me. That's just common courtesy."
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  • Excuse me? Since when am I the HR fairy? She then said I had "girlboss energy" and that I "manipulated" leadership to get
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  • ahead of her. What I actually did was... check the job board and have relevant experience.
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    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • She's now refusing to help me with transition work, saying it's "my problem now." Entitled and petty.
    via Low_Hamster_4749
  • pixie-ann If they really wanted her to apply for the role someone would have given her a quick heads up about it being on the jobs board. It's not your job to do her personal admin for her, that's on her.
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  • Aggravating-Pin-8845 I would have a word to your boss about this and consider going to HR. It is not up to you to hold her hand and fix things for her. She is harassing you
    via Aggravating-Pin-8845
  • JohnnySkidmarx So an employee that is too lazy to look at job openings on an internal job board thinks she is a better fit for a team lead role? Lady, if you are too lazy to search for the job you don't deserve it.
    via JohnnySkidmarx
  • kukonimz Her not checking the board and blaming you for her lack of action is exactly why she shouldn't get promoted. And what the h lis girlboss energy? And congrats on the promotion!
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  • PlantManMD Can you put her on a PIP? See if she likes her job at all.
    via PlantManMD
  • Alceus89 I knew someone in a previous role who raised a formal complaint with management, because the senior adviser role that opened went to someone with notably less experience in the company than her.
    via Alceus89
  • However her argument was somewhat weakened by the fact that she never applied. Apparently she saw the job opening and just assumed that without applying or even ever mentioning it to her boss, that he'd just know that she was interested and would just offer it to her.
    via Alceus89
  • HelloMoto070 She can be the first one you fire. Milestone in your career!
    via HelloMoto070

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terrible coworkers promotion workplace-stories work stories Professional At Work new hire work coworkers reddit story reddit thread Reddit coworker
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