Boss tells employee to spy on coworker who just had a baby to help catch her "slacking" and making errors, refuses to snitch on struggling new mother: ‘I’m not ever going to follow this request'

There is a difference between being a good coworker and being a good employee; it can be hard to spot at first because ideally, you're aiming to be both at the same time. A good employee keeps the boss happy by meeting deadlines and producing results. A good coworker, on the other hand, is someone who respects boundaries, has your back, and doesn't throw you under the bus when things go sideways.

To illustrate the idea, back in my waitressing days, I worked with a girl who was quick as lightning the floor but had a habit of "forgetting" to refill waters or completely ignoring customers when it wasn't her table. Technically, she was a star employee because she made the restaurant money. But no one really liked being on a weekend dinner rush shift with her because she wasn't a team player and just focused on making herself look good to the managers.

That leads us to the story below: when one worker is asked by their manager to start spying on a colleague who just had a baby, it feels wrong on so many levels. They're expected to log every mistake, report any "slacking," and even track when her baby interrupts a call. Considering this colleague had already been demoted after returning from leave—even though she'd been a top performer before—this sneaky, underhanded setup doesn't just feel cruel, it presents our employee with an impossible choice: be the "good employee" the boss wants, or the "good coworker" their conscience says they should be.

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Boss asked me to spy on coworker who just had a baby

via Sarah Chai from Pexels

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Um, maybe this is something of a cop-out, but I think both our narrator and the new mom should run far away from this company! There are so many red flags here already.
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It's really important to get this kind of thing in writing if you intend to go to HR with it.
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