UPDATE: 56-year-old shares Google Doc of complaints about mid-20s receptionist, gets fired: 'She manifested her own downfall'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 21, 2026 3:00 PM EST

The office drama queen decided to target a young receptionist, but was shocked when no one else in the office wanted to pile onto her complaint list. 

This employee doesn't pass the vibe check whatsoever, and her coworkers are completely sick of it. 

Every workspace functions differently, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Seriously — even if there's great team cohesion, if the wrong person joins the team and gossips, spreads rumors, and tries to pit coworkers against each other, it can swiftly change the entire workplace dynamic. Teams that once worked fluidly suddenly start looking at each other sideways, policing tone or judging anyone who dares to partake in water cooler chat with the other members. It's just bad for business, and more importantly, it can actively interfere with business as usual. As a boss, that alone should be reason enough to put a stop to this kind of behavior. 

This person shared their story of a coworker who honestly just seems like a bad personality fit for the team she's on. As this worker explained, this woman is nice to be around about 25% of the time, but most of her time is spent whining about any and everything. A little bit of complaining is okay, mostly if it's commiseration, like whining about icy roads or rolling your eyes about the ridiculous demands a client has. But if you're just complaining 24/7 about every aspect of your life, rest assured, people will see you and run the other way. We're all dealing with our own issues, and it can really be a drag when someone just openly complains during time that could be spent talking about more positive things, like people's favorite TV shows or books, or people are all doing next weekend, or even celebrating a big win at the office. 

As this person shared, though, their mid-50s coworker doesn't really seem to have much of a life outside of work. She claims to adore her coworkers (who she calls her "girls," as if they're IRL besties instead of coworkers!), and yet she can't stop whining to them, making them dislike her. 

She really stepped out of line when she shopped around a Google Doc that she herself created. Like, it's truly unhinged behavior, and it's honestly surprising she didn't get fired even sooner after creating the document. That's just such a major no-go, and this woman seemed blissfully unaware of it. If you have an issue with a coworker, you go to HR in private and tell them all about it! Keep reading below to find out exactly what you don't do, as this woman found out too late. Let's hope that her massive blunder inspires her to change the way she operates at her next job. 

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  • 01

    'Karen of a coworker wrote a "list" to get our receptionist fired'

    Cheezburger Image 10598731264
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    My coworker (56F) is a piece of work. Some days she's great with her jokes and sarcastic tone. But about 75% of the time she's really negative. About herself, about life, about her family, her situation, just everything. Complains about EVERYTHING. She's single, and is quite miserable with the fact that she's 56 and single. She has time and time again said "I hate the weekends I look forward to my week at work with my girls!" (First
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 03
    of all we are not 'your girls' we are your coworkers that are unfortunately forced to tolerate you.) To keep this vent relatively short, Recently my coworker had an absolute come-apart for hours about our receptionist. Granted, our receptionist is in her twenties. Young mom, her husband works from home. Overall kinda ditsy but she shows up and that's what matters. My
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 04
    coworker just starts RANTING about all the shit our receptionist "gets away with" (ie. wearing. leggings to work, a nose piercing, being 5 minutes late sometimes, taking long APPROVED lunches with her husband.) The rest of the office has no problem with our receptionist. It seems my coworker has a personal nerve struck about our receptionist though. She started asking around "what do you think of [receptionist?]" Like she was
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 05
    trying to get rapport. Majority of those said they didnt care about her or no opinion. But apparently that triggered the point that she SHARED A GOOGLE DOC WITH THE OFFICE OF A LIST OF ALL THE THINGS OUR RECEPTIONIST DOES THAT SHE DOESN'T LIKE. Most of it I believe was fabricated to make our receptionist look bad.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 06
    It was pure bully insecure behavior. It was disgusting. This coworker wanted to bring in our controller and HR to a "meeting" with our office on how THEY need to do better about THEIR responsibilities and how to take better care of their employees (aka our receptionist). Like, what the actual fuck?! If I found out someone made a list about me I'd be absolutely mortified. Let alone SHARED with the office. For the fact that she
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 07
    wants to drag all of us down with her to "back her up" about her feelings. No, fuck you and your bully mentality! I'm sorry if you're jealous of her life or our lives or whatever it is you're insecure about. Maybe she just solely wants attention. But like? Our receptionist is NOT YOUR PROBLEM. Why do you care so much?? You can barely do your own job. If you want to be the receptionist maybe bring that up
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 08
    to our manager and not get a poor girl fired. I just felt so icky after reading that list. Things like "always late, long lunches, dresses inappropriately, spends too much time on her phone, busy talking to male employees." etc etc. She's not under you, why do you care so much? How fucking old are you??! This felt so tattle tale to me it was gross.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 09
    Sorry you're not hot and in your twenties anymore. Don't know what else to tell you but you can't just write a list of reasons why you dislike someone and hope it gets them fired. The "meeting" has not happened btw, because she's too chicken. She's all talk but no walk. We're not going to back her up. She just wants to cause drama. *eye roll*
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 10
    Sidenote: My mom says I could write a book about this coworker because of how much shit I've had to deal with from the past 7 months. This is just a sliver of one of those stories.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 11
    thequietpsy... OP UPDATE: turns out she deleted the list! She heard another coworker say she was going to show the list to HR and she panicked and deleted it!
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 12
    aymiah Has the bullying behavior been brought up to HR at all, or...?
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 13
    thequietpsycho102 OP after this incident our office is going to set up a "meeting" about her!
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 14

    Here's the 2nd update: 'She got fired after crying over the deposit'

    *sigh* It's been a beautiful month, the final installment of Debbie. About the week before Thanksgiving, Debbie was really struggling with the daily deposit. Well, she always struggled, but suddenly she just couldn't balance. It would take her HOURS to get the deposit done every morning. She would complain how she couldn't balance.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 15
    Overthinking everything, reversing entries, adjusting entries to force balance (which is I think illegal?) Calling in our manager almost daily to ask for help. It was annoying to hear her complain how she just couldn't do it. I think with the holidays approaching she was spiraling more.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 16
    One morning as I walked in, my manager asked me if I'd like to learn how to do the deposit (I normally do the banking anyways) so I said absolutely! Anyway, when my manager was walking me through the deposit and I saw Debbie crying at her desk I thought "well yeah if you can't do it you're going to get it taken away from you." Not knowing that Debbie asked our manager if she could not do the deposit anymore.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 17
    The deposit is so fucking easy. I don't understand how she couldn't grasp it everyday. Maybe because numbers would change because... transactions change daily... You check your numbers in the till, you check your numbers logged, and they should balance for the previous day. I think when I did the deposit for the first time on my own I did it in 30 minutes. And what did Debbie do? Roll her eyes and cry.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 18
    Debbie got progressively worse after that. Complaining, moody, watching tiktoks at FULL VOLUME at her desk. Just not wanting to work anymore. (remind you this is a full grown ass woman (57)! Just disrupting the work environment and wanting attention that she did not get)
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 19
    The Monday after Thanksgiving our manager texted in the office group chat (minus debbie) that when they call Debbie into our boss' office to pack up and leave early. We knew it was finally coming. When they called Debbie in she literally said "I'm getting fired". Yeah, you were. Finally our boss and manager had the nerve. There's a whole laundry list of reasons why she got fired, but I think the deposit was the final straw. That is something you
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 20
    cannot fuck up on and she was on the daily and frankly it was just embarrassing. Debbie downer is finally gone, and she blocked all of us on facebook (lol) so we know she's just being petty. Bitch manifested her own downfall. And our office is thriving now with her gone. Happy new year. Hope Debbie's goal is to get some therapy.
    via u/thequietpsych*102
  • 21
    Cheezburger Image 10598731520
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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