Employee refuses to correct her overly confident coworker before she presented her outdated business proposal to the senior leadership: 'She said teammates are supposed to look out for each other.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Feb 16, 2026 11:00 AM EST

She did look out for her in the past, but she didn't appreciate it. 

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. This is true across many aspects of professional life. You can tell your friend they need to take their job more seriously if they want to stop getting fired every year, but if they really don't care, you can't force them to. Your boyfriend might tell you that the only way to move up the ranks in your career is to do more networking, but he can't make you attend said networking events: you have to do that yourself. 

It's not always easy to give your coworkers advice if you're on the same level as them. After all, it's pretty gauche to tell your equal what to do in the workplace. Only a manager or a boss should give orders. All that is to say, you can imply and suggest things to your coworker to help them out. If you got in trouble for wearing jeans a couple of months prior and the new hire shows up in jeans, it'd feel wrong not to tell them to avoid doing that in the future so they don't get in trouble. You want to look out for your fellow worker, and unless they are convinced that they're always right, most coworkers will be happy to get advice about things that you've already been through with your company. You're not obliged to tell them, but it's a nice thing to do. 

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  • A woman standing in front of a blue chair while doing a business presentation
    via A. C. (Unsplash+)

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

  • The employee in this story never appreciates her coworkers' advice or wisdom, so she decided to stop giving it to her. The result? She was utterly embarrassed in front of senior leadership and blamed it on her coworker. 

  • Am I wrong for not warning my coworker that she was about to embarrass herself in front of leadership?

    I (25F) work in a small but growing company. We're all around the same age (mid 20s to early 30s), so things are friendly but competitive.
    via u/AIinHR
  • One of my coworkers (27F) is very confident. She speaks up a lot in meetings and likes to position herself as the "strategic thinker" of the team.
    via u/AIinHR
  • Sometimes she's great. Sometimes she clearly hasn't done the homework. Last week we had a meeting with senior leadership about a new internal process.
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  • I had done a lot of research on it beforehand because I was directly responsible for implementation.
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  • Before the meeting, she told me she planned to challenge the proposal and suggest a better framework.
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  • When she explained her idea to me casually, I realized she was basing it on outdated information.
    via u/AIinHR
  • We had already tested that exact approach and it failed. I considered telling her. But honestly...
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  • she has a history of interrupting me in meetings and presenting my ideas louder and more confidently.
    via u/AIinHR
  • A group of people standing around each other
    via A. C. (Unsplash+)

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

  • I've corrected her privately before and she brushed it off. So this time, I stayed quiet.
    via u/AIinHR
  • A woman reviews papers with a slight smile
    via Ben Iwara (Unsplash+)

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

  • In the meeting, she confidently presented her alternative. Leadership immediately asked follow-up questions. I explained (when prompted) that we had already tried it and shared the data.
    via u/AIinHR
  • It got awkward fast. Afterward, she was upset and said I should have warned her beforehand instead of letting her walk into that.
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  • She said teammates are supposed to look out for each other. I said it wasn't my job to manage her preparation, especially when she didn't ask for feedback, she just told me what she was going to say.
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  • Now things are tense. A couple coworkers think I technically didn't do anything wrong, but that I could of handled it better.
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  • AITA for not stepping in before the meeting? P.S.: She claims to be my office bestie
    via u/AIinHR
  • motimoj It's always interesting when certain people are "allowed" to be competitive, and others are not. NTA
    via u/motimoj
  • AlinHR Original Poster's Reply People with civic sense are generally not allowed to be humans to be precise
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  • For_Vox_Sake > I said it wasn't my job to manage her preparation, especially when she didn't ask for feedback, she just told me what she was going to say This is exactly it. If she'd have come to you and said "Hey, I know you've been working on x project, and I have read about y, is that something you considered?" and you could've had a conversation about it. The fact she explicitly chose to just publically "challenge" you instead, tells you she just wanted to make herself look good to leadershi
    via u/For_Vox_Sake
  • AlinHR Original Poster's Reply She just said to me, "I am going to challenge your idea in that particular meeting"
    via u/AIinHR
  • dhbxxxx >It's always interesting when certain people are "allowed" to be competitive, and others are not. Once in a while you come across a brilliant statement that captures the essence in a few words or one sentence. Today I found this one!
    via u/dhbxxxx
  • AlinHR Original Poster's Reply Words of wisdom, I say.....
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  • YomiKuzuki > She said teammates are supposed to look out for each other. The hypocrisy made my eyes roll so hard that they turned the inside of my skull into a singularity. NTA. She's just mad that you didn't let yourself be her stepping stone. Don't let her take advantage of you anymore.
    via u/YomiKuzuki
  • AlinHR Original Poster's Reply Skull part had me ☑
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  • ynotfoster Was it your idea she was challenging? In the OP you said "the" idea.
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  • AlinHR Original Poster's Reply Yes, technically it was mine and one of the senior's idea which we two were working on.... sort of pilot (which was a success) and in that meeting we were going to present the actual plan and the outcomes...
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  • ThemedAndGuilty Personally I would have told her. I'm a 27 year old woman who's worked office jobs her entire life and that's some drama I wouldn't want to be a part of. But my office jobs were always actual, professional jobs with actual work professionals, so interrupting or over talking in a meeting, especially one discussing how we're going to start picking up the slack in one of our areas, would be quickly shut down by the OM.
    via u/ThemedAndGuilty
  • AlinHR Original Poster's Reply Can i share you my CV? It feels like I need this kind of office environment....
    via u/AIinHR
  • Whole-Tax-4813 FAFO, beotch. You (tried to) teach her a valuable lesson. NTA.
    via u/Whole-Tax-4813

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employee confidence coworkers teammates proposal Office company business correction leader
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