Coworker Kelsey demands a colleague drive 50 miles back to the office and Uber her forgotten laptop to the airport, because she’s “childless and free”: ‘She escalated our group chat, tagging my manager, saying I’m refusing to help the team’

Kelsey's crisis started with one woman (herself, that is), one airport, and one laptop that didn't make it past the desk drawer. Kelsey forgot hers, discovered it at security, and decided the logical solution was to text a coworker sitting in traffic miles away and demand a midnight delivery. Her pitch was gorgeous in its audacity. You live close. You don't have kids. It's not a big deal. Translation: you don't matter after six.  

By the time she added a sad face and looped in her husband to offer gas money like he was closing a hostage negotiation, it became performance art. The office locks at eight, but apparently reason closed earlier. The coworker said no, politely, repeatedly, while Kelsey clung to her gate seat and a growing sense of injustice. When her manager joined the group chat, logic returned like a power outage flickering back to life. He asked why she never backed up her files, then told her to get a Chromebook and charge it to the company. 

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  • Defeated but not reflective, Kelsey pivoted to the oldest trick in corporate survival. She made it about values. By morning she was posting essays about teamwork and how people without kids should be more flexible. No one replied. The silence was thick enough to stretch across the open floor plan.  

  • Coworker demanded I drive 50 miles to bring her laptop because I’m “childless and free”

    Frustrated businesswoman talking on the phone in a bright hallway, expressing anger or stress while holding her bag
    via Production Perig

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

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  • I work at a mid sized company where we do a weird mix of in office days and remote. Yesterday was one of my office days. I left at 6, sat in traffic forever, finally collapsed on my couch and started dinner. At 7.12 pm I get a
    via Polvrix
  • barrage of texts from a coworker, Kelsey, who had flown to a client site. She forgot her work laptop in her desk drawer and discovered it at the airport security when she tried to take out a book. She tells
    via Polvrix
  • me to please drive back to the office right now, grab the laptop, and Uber it to the airport because I "live close" and "don't have kids so it's not a big deal". I live 25 miles away. The office locks at 8.
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  • Security will not even let me in without a manager request. I told her to file an IT ticket and call her manager. She replies with a screenshot of her boarding time
    via Polvrix
  • Stressed businesswoman talking on the phone while checking her watch, appearing late or in a hurry outside a modern building
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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • and a sad face. Then she calls me on video at 7.20, in the gate area, and puts her husband on the phone who says he will "Venmo gas money".
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  • I repeat that I cannot open the building and that even if I could, the airport is on the other side of the city, I would be getting home at midnight. She says I should do
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  • it because I was already "on the couch anyway". Then she drops the line that made me laugh out loud. "You have more free time than the rest of us, you chose that life". I guess liking my quiet
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  • apartment means I'm a free delivery service now. She escalates to our group chat, tagging my manager, saying I am refusing to help the team.
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  • Frustrated businesswoman talking on the phone in a bright hallway, expressing anger or stress while holding her bag
    via Production Perig

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

  • Manager finally appears, asks Kelsey why she packed no backup, no cloud access, no VPN key. Turns out she actively ignored three reminders to sync her files because she "didn't want
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  • to learn another app". Manager tells her to buy a cheap Chromebook at the airport store, expense it, and use the web portal. She sulks, then tells me I made her cry and that I will never get support from her again.
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  • This morning she posted a long message about "teamwork" and how people without kids should be more flexible for those with families. The comments from the
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  • team were awkward silence. Our security guy DM'd me a thumbs up and the line, you can quote me, the building still closes at 8.
    via Polvrix

  • In the end, the only winner was the security guard, who sent a quiet thumbs up and the best office proverb ever written. The building still closes at eight.

  • Cursd818 I'd report her harassment to HR if this scenario happened to me.
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  • I_ship_it07 "Yes I am childfree so what make you think that I will treat you like my child?" Report her to HR
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  • Ok-Style-9734 "She sulks, then tells me I made her cry and that I will never get support from her again. This morning she posted a long message about "teamwork" and how people without kids should be more flexible for those with families." So harassment and discrimination?
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  • Shabbabola This is 100% A.l not a single moment of this happened. The unreasonable request, the family member getting involved, the follow up post. Its a carbon copy formula of all the other slop
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  • harpie84 Gee in your other post you're a 21f college student. Something doesn't add up.
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  • gwapogi5 if this is me I would also charge her by the hour until I get home, I would also message the group chat that I will do this if I will be paid overtime and my gas consumption will be compensated
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  • Grouchy_Focus 73 I would go to hr about this hostile work environment and discrimination
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  • SilverLordLaz Really did they all clap? in your other post, you're.... 21f am in college and I get federal student loans. My tuition is not super high because I go to a state school and I got a small scholarship. So every semester I get a refund of a few hundred to 1k depending on classes. I use it for books, gas, sometimes groceries. I told my parents about it because I still live with them and I thought it was just info they should know.
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  • Sassy-Peanut Your manager gave your co- worker the perfect solution to her failure to plan. Instead of apologising for ignoring the backup and emergency systems etc, she goes off on you and makes personal remarks about your lifestyle being unimportant compared to hers. What didn't she understand about 'the office closed at 8.00pm?' Hopefully HR has taken note of her unprofessionalism.
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  • Dear_Leadership2982 Three days ago you were 21 years old and in college, complaining about your father using your student loan refund.
    via Polvrix
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management terrible coworkers workplace discussion employment issues boss workplace-stories hr manager bosses work coworkers colleague PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
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