'So you're the reason this was late?': Employee gets back at coworker who pinned delays on them by showing manager the receipts

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 5, 2025 5:00 PM EST

This coworker has a bad habit of refusing to take any of the blame when projects run late, and unsurprisingly, his coworkers are growing tired of this habit. 

No one wants to get on the boss's bad side, and a lot of workers will stay late, eating dinner at their desks and working until the wee hours of the night just to finish an important project or two. If you don't set good enough work-life boundaries, a boss can push you into madness trying to get done all that work! Of course, if you have a strong team of coworkers with whom you can tackle the challenges head-on, that's a real benefit. You or your boss can try to assign people to parts of the tasks that they excel at — and that makes everyone look good. 

They say you should try and make your boss look good to their boss, so when you are consistently not hitting your deadlines, and that manager is breathing down your neck, it's only natural to worry. Luckily for this person, they're well-versed with the CYA method of covering themselves to ensure that they can't be wrongly blamed for anything. 

Their coworker also really pushed the limits here, and what he's doing is bad for his own relationship-building. He probably lost all of his coworkers' trust the first time he threw someone under the bus. And yes, he didn't lose the trust of just the person he blamed, but also every worker around him who noticed exactly what he did. In the moment, he made himself look good, but I would argue that pulling this kind of stunt even one time is enough to make all of your coworkers look at you sideways. Check out this excellent story below — see who you side with!

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  • 01
    Man in suit jacket looks at laptop next to woman in denim jacket who gestures at laptop and looks unhappy in office setting
    via Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    I had a coworker who loved throwing people. under the bus in meetings to make himself look good. One day, he claimed I "missed a deadline" in front of everyone and suggested I was unreliable. I didn't argue.
    via u/Proof_Signal7468
  • 03
    I just calmly shared my screen and opened the email where he emailed me late with the files... the night before the deadline.
    via u/Proof_Signal7468
  • 04
    The room went silent. Then the manager looked at him and said, "So you're the reason this was late?"
    via u/Proof_Signal7468
  • 05
    He never tried me again. Sometimes the best revenge is receipts.
    via u/Proof_Signal7468
  • 06
    AstroAiden LMAO, love when you don't even need to speak.
    via u/AstroAiden
  • 07
    Weird Pink... 20 years ago went to work for a new company and an awesome boss. Set the standard. He told me never delete emails. He said he'd seen a government department
    via u/WeirdPinkHair
  • 08
    (highways) roll in 10 years work of emails into a court case. They never get rid of anything and it's a good practice due to legal reasons.
    via u/WeirdPinkHair
  • 09
    That bit of advise has saved me more times than I can count. Audit after a project has finished; the accountant asked if I remembered an issue 15 months prior, thankfully I did. and I had all the
    via u/WeirdPinkHair
  • 10
    emails. She was very happy. Any time someone asks me to do anything off standard procedure, late norice etc, I ask for an email so I can 'ensure I have the details correct'. Also
    via u/WeirdPinkHair
  • 11
    known as covering my ass. And if anyone asks for something really dodgy and I say no but if they insist, I ask for an email. Incredible how suddenly they're ok with my no.
    via u/WeirdPinkHair
  • 12
    Emails are your friend!!!
    via u/WeirdPinkHair
  • 13
    johngknig... Had a manager tell us that using loyalty cards to collect points when filling company cars up was steeling from the company and must stop immediately. Didn't
    via u/johngknightuk
  • 14
    say a thing, just pointed to his e-bike plugged into the wall
    via u/johngknightuk
  • 15
    FlamingB... As a woman in tech I have been thrown under the bus one too many times. I now document everything.
    via u/FlamingBoltofWisdom
  • 16
    Coworkers who have caught on to that fact no longer email me. Every verbal interaction with them is quickly followed up with an email to them repeating what was
    via u/FlamingBoltofWisdom
  • 17
    discussed. I have a paper trail for everything.
    via u/FlamingBoltofWisdom
  • 18
    Big-Net-9... So he wasn't just throwing you under the bus, he was actively sabotaging you so he could throw you under the bus. &$!#%
    via u/Big-Net-9971

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