Woman refuses to vouch for a coworker, Dana, who got her in trouble with their manager, and now the whole office thinks she's the problem: “She told our manager that a report I sent had “major formatting issues”’

• 
  via Vitaly Gariev

  Woman working on a laptop at a desk in a modern office.

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

• Workplace relationships have a specific kind of diplomacy to them. You keep things professional, you make small talk in the kitchen, and you file away the moments when someone made your life harder without ever acknowledging it. The file doesn't disappear. It just sits there until the day it becomes relevant again.

• AITA for not covering for my coworker after she threw me under the bus six months ago?

  
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Vitaly Gariev

  Two women collaborating over a laptop at a desk in a modern office.

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

• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Vitaly Gariev

  Woman working on a laptop at a desk while another tends to a plant in a modern workspace.

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

• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7

• Getting thrown under the bus over a misaligned column is a particular kind of frustrating because the stakes were so low and the escalation was so unnecessary. One email to the manager before the person even knew there was a problem, framed as a concern about work ethic rather than a software export issue, is a choice. It's a small choice, but it lands in a performance review and affects how someone is perceived for months, and that's not nothing.

• 
  via Relic_Naught7

• The request to vouch for something that couldn't be verified is where it gets interesting. Setting aside the history entirely, being asked to tell a manager you witnessed something you didn't witness, while working from home on the day in question, is just not a thing you can reasonably agree to do. That's not pettiness or self-preservation, it's the basic requirement of not lying to your employer about what you personally observed. The history makes declining feel satisfying, but the reason for declining had nothing to do with the history.

• 
  via Relic_Naught7

• The social fallout is the predictable part. Dana sorted out her problem, found her draft, moved on professionally, but the story circulating among her friends is apparently about someone who refused to help rather than someone who asked a colleague to lie. That reframe is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The comment about people who only look out for themselves lands differently when the full context is that the person being accused of self-interest was simply unwilling to fabricate a witness account.

• 
  via Relic_Naught7
• 
  via Relic_Naught7

• Keeping things professional after someone affects your review without apologizing is generous. Declining to cover for that same person when you genuinely have no information to offer is just accurate. Those two things can both be true without any pettiness required.

Tags

Also From FAIL Blog

Arizona Landlord informs tenant that the parking included in the lease won't be available until August on move-in day, after collecting $3000 and handing over keys