'She’s mastered the optics game': Coworker treats office like "theater show", always taking credit for coworkers' work and verbalizing how great she is, causing office tension when managers undeservingly applaud her

Author image for Emma Saven
Emma Saven
Aug 27, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

We grew up being told that there would always be someone smarter, prettier, dumber, and uglier…so never compare yourself to anyone else and always do the best you can. We still live by this today, especially in a world built on intense competition to climb the ladder of success.

However, what does get people talking is when someone takes credit for everyone else's hard work after putting in zero time and effort. That's bound to ruffle a few feathers. Especially in this office…When an employee uses her loud voice as a weapon to mask her lack of dedication to her responsibilities. She makes the office into her personal theater, constantly making a show out of 'all her hard work,' despite her employees continually cleaning up her corporate messes…They're just patiently waiting for the final curtain to close.

We're not quite sure what deserves a bigger standing ovation: The fact that she's got all her managers convinced that she's the office rockstar, or the fact that her coworkers have bitten their tongues for so long?

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  • Maybe it's time for her coworkers to express their frustrations around the fact that she is ‘all talk’! There are only so many weekdays that one can face a manipulative coworker, and unfortunately, their leave days are fleeting…So that leaves them with really no choice but to try to get her show cancelled! 

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    Woman explaining concept to her coworkers
    via davidpereiras

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    my coworker acts like the office is her personal theater and its driving me insane

    We have this woman in our office who somehow manages to turn literally EVERYTHING into a full- on performance. It's like she's
    via irron81
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    auditioning for the role of "employee of the year" 24/7. She finishes a basic report? She announces it to the entire floor
    via irron81
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    like she just solved world hunger. Stays 15 minutes late one night? We all hear about it multiple. times the next morning. During
    via irron81
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    meetings she does these dramatic sighs or leans back in her chair looking "overwhelmed" if she's not the center of attention.
    via irron81
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    The wild part is...she's actually bad at her job. She makes constant mistakes, misses details and forgets follow-ups, but
    via irron81
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    because she's so loud and visible, management is convinced she's a rockstar. Meanwhile, the rest of us are quietly fixing her screwups
    via irron81
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    in the background just to keep projects from falling apart. Last week was the tipping point... she literally interrupted a meeting mid-discussion to say, "I think
    via irron81
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    everyone should acknowledge how much extra work I've been doing lately." I had to bite my tongue to not laugh out loud (or
    via irron81
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    throw my laptop). What makes it so exhausting is how it warps the whole team dynamic. The people who do solid, consistent work go
    via irron81
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    unnoticed because we're not constantly spotlighting ourselves and she thrives because she's mastered the optics game. It
    via irron81
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    Employee fist-bumping their boss
    via gettyimages

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    makes me wonder if some managers honestly can't tell the difference between genuine contribution and someone who's just good at playing the part.
    via irron81
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    evanthx So you constantly cover for her, fix all her mistakes, don't tell your boss what you're doing, and can't understand why the boss thinks she's doing fine? Weird. What a mystery. No way to understand how to address this.
    via evanthx
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    ConstructionGold8583 This woman is playing 3D chess while you people are still playing checkers. Sh› is pulling a George Constanza and your management is falling for it lol
    via ConstructionGold8583
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    jmsturm Management thinks she is a rockstar because she is the only one saying anything and you guys are fixing her mistakes. Start talking and stop fixing
    via jmsturm
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    j_grouchy I had to bite my tongue to not laugh out loud Honestly....why? Why would you hold back from calling her out publicly? Sounds like she isn't at all shy about tooting her own horn.
    via j_grouchy
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    Valuable-Series-2843 Talk with your other coworkers. Next time she puts on a performance or mentions she's gone above and beyond. Everyone stand up and give her a round of applause.
    via Valuable-Series-2843
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    Dobgirl "The wild part is... " actually the explanation. People who are bad at their jobs have to make a lot of noise and chaos to cover.
    via Dobgirl
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    Here_4_the_INFO You know who the most competent person in the room is? The one that doesn't need to tell everyone.
    via Here_4_the_INFO
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    jersey8894 Management will only notice when it directly impacts them. Right now it's only impacting you and your colleagues...soon as you stop fixing her mistakes management will notice.
    via jersey8894
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    Either_Coconut Maybe it's time for everyone else to be dramatic, sigh loudly, and declare to the whole office, "I just spend the afternoon following up on XYZ because someone else neglected to do it! I spent two hours fixing the mistake on this project that someone else made!"
    via Either_Coconut
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    Fanabala3 Guess who will probably be made the new manager when there is an opening? Can't count how many times I saw that happen during my career.
    via Fanabala3

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Tags

terrible coworkers boss over the top FAIL take-credit validate errors coworkers unfair Office bad-coworkers incompetence rockstar workplace fix-mistakes dramatic
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