Supervisor tries bonding with younger staff, ends up exposed for gossiping after intern sends message to the wrong person: 'Happy to report that I’ve now transitioned to a different department'

Working for a company with a small team can feel a bit like working on a group project you can't escape. Everyone's close, everyone's tired, and everyone's pretending they don't hear each other's Slack notifications. At my last job, we all ate lunch together every day because "that's our culture," which mostly meant performative small talk and pretending we were all best friends. When a company is tiny, the walls feel even tighter, and the pressure to bond (especially with management) gets heavy fast.

And the truth is, as fun as it can be to vent about shared suffering or the coworker who loudly takes credit for breathing, you never really know who's listening. Or in this case, who's watching.

Author image for Isabella Penn Isabella Penn
Add us on Google
Advertisement

Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!

Tags

intern work exposed supervisor gossip chat
Scroll Down For The Next Article

Also From FAIL Blog

Manager lowballs cybersecurity employee with a 12% raise, so the employee internally transfers to another team and gets a 28% raise: ‘Gotta love the corporate world’

Manager lowballs cybersecurity employee with a 12% raise, so the employee internally transfers to another team and gets a 28% raise: ‘Gotta love the corporate world’

Trending Now

‘It's the principle’: Grocery deliveryman takes 25 minutes to unload neighbor's items while blocking another resident's driveway 3 to 4 times a week

‘It's the principle’: Grocery deliveryman takes 25 minutes to unload neighbor's items while blocking another resident's driveway 3 to 4 times a week

01
Boss tells employee to be grateful she has a job after reprimanding her for taking her 30-minute unpaid lunch break, forcing her to make a hard decision about the future of her employment: '[I] sent out 5 applications during my lunch break today'

Boss tells employee to be grateful she has a job after reprimanding her for taking her 30-minute unpaid lunch break, forcing her to make a hard decision about the future of her employment: '[I] sent out 5 applications during my lunch break today'

02
Single mom Lena returns from maternity leave, dumps mountains of work onto coworker Daria, who finally goes to HR when the workload becomes too much: ‘It became full accounts with notes saying "Daria will handle."’

Single mom Lena returns from maternity leave, dumps mountains of work onto coworker Daria, who finally goes to HR when the workload becomes too much: ‘It became full accounts with notes saying "Daria will handle."’

03
'I don't need the money': Pre-retired man re-enters the workforce as an IT worker for "purpose" reasons, but quickly becomes fed up with corporate drama, wants to tell young boss he needs autonomy and flexibility

'I don't need the money': Pre-retired man re-enters the workforce as an IT worker for "purpose" reasons, but quickly becomes fed up with corporate drama, wants to tell young boss he needs autonomy and flexibility

04
Worker finally resigns after a five-year promotion stall, only for the company to offer the immediate role they claimed didn’t exist: 'Your loyalty should be to yourself, not to a company that won't hesitate to string you along'

Worker finally resigns after a five-year promotion stall, only for the company to offer the immediate role they claimed didn’t exist: 'Your loyalty should be to yourself, not to a company that won't hesitate to string you along'

05
'I'm not a computer person': IT department refuses to walk incompetent employees through basic tech issues, claiming it's 2025

'I'm not a computer person': IT department refuses to walk incompetent employees through basic tech issues, claiming it's 2025

06
Advertisement