Vet office employee gets tired of hunting down coworker for handovers and starts leaving right on time, coworker runs to the boss to complain: ‘[It's not my business where you are in the building when your shift starts]’

Author image for Celeste Mello
Celeste Mello • Writer and Editor
Jun 9, 2026 9:45 AM EDT

Have you ever had a coworker who played with your time? That one who never shows up on time at scheduled meetings, that one who disappears when it's time to do a shared task, or that one who doesn't respect your working hours. In today's story, an employee gets tired of waiting for her coworker before she can leave the office exactly at the end of her shift. Not any longer. If your shift ends at 5:30, then 5:30 means 5:30, not when the next employee arrives and decides they feel ready to start doing their job. 

Scheduled times at the workplace matter. They exist for a reason, and they should be respected so that no one's workday is any longer than it has to be. Problems arise when responsible employees end up compensating for the habits of the less responsible ones. Because they end up doing more than what they should, but they care about it, so they won't leave everything unattended. They know someone has to actually do the job, so irresponsible employees often take advantage of the situation when they see that someone else is covering up for them. But that's really unfair. 

A vet office employee posted her workplace story on the Reddit coworker stories subreddit, commenting that every handover was a problem. Her coworker was never where she needed to be; she was elsewhere in the building, chatting with other colleagues while she kept waiting for her. Understandably, she didn't want customers to be affected, and she didn't want work to pile up and consequently leave her coworker in a difficult situation. She was being considerate. But over time, she got tired of the same situation happening every single day, so at that point, she realized it was a lack of respect for her time. She shouldn't be responsible for her coworker's irresponsibility. 

The solution was pretty simple: she stopped making her coworker's problem her own. She stopped sacrificing her time to compensate for her coworker's bad habits and let her deal with the consequences herself. And just like that, her coworker started respecting the schedule. The problem was never a lack of time, but a lack of consequences.

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  • 01
    A vet office worker finishing her scheduled shift on time, represented by a model.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A vet office worker finishing her scheduled shift on time, represented by a model.

  • “5:30 means 5:30, not when you're ready”

    “When my boss had more employees, I would leave at 5:30 and another employee was supposed to arrive at 5:15 for handover. However, no matter what time she got there she would go to the back and have a chatfest with the other employees. I would wait for her to come up so I could leave, but I found she wouldn't come up until I went to find her to say I'm leaving.
    I got tired of this and just left at 5:30. Phone ringing, people in the waiting room, emergencies? Not my problem. Issues that are better explained in person? Left with me in my head. She complained to me and our boss about it and I told her it's not my business where she is in the building when her shift starts. The next day she was at the desk before I left, grumpy as h*ll.”

    -WilmaDykfyt

  • 02
    A representation of a vet office employee taking care of a cat during her shift.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A representation of a vet office employee taking care of a cat during her shift.

  •  

    qainspector89

    "I went through this exact thing at my job

    Did the same thing as you - just started leaving when I knew my time was up

    I don't have all day and night to wait around"

    WilmaDykfyt AO

    "I had a lot of animals waiting on me and I'd rather have her miffed at me than them!"

    qainspector89

    "The dude that was doing it ALSO tried to complain to our boss that I'm getting mad and ‘leaving too early’

    He doesn't work in my department anymore"

    OrbitRangerG33

    “she treated your time like it was disposable frustrating and totally unfair.”

  • 03
    This model represents a veterinary clinic waiting room with animals and pet owners waiting for their scheduled appointments.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    This model represents a veterinary clinic waiting room with animals and pet owners waiting for their scheduled appointments.


  • iH8MotherTeresa

    "She can be grumpy all she likes, so long as she's at the desk for your relief. Actually, she doesn't have to be there. But that's none of your business lol.

    Good on you for setting that hard boundary. Your boss and others are less likely to try you with bullsh*t down the road. No reason you should have to put up with that nonsense."

    WilmaDykfyt AO

    “My boss thought it was funny. He didn't care for drama at all and left us to manage ourselves mostly.”

    Organic_Start_420

    “It's your boss's job to tell her to start working on time so you have a cr*ppy boss as well as a cr*ppy coworker”

    WilmaDykfyt AO

    “Yep! I get fantastic discounts and free products though. Veterinary care can be wildly expensive where I live.” 

  •  

    Main_Independence221

    “I had coworkers like that. They were supposed to be ready for work at 6am (I worked 2nd shift) so I could clock out and leave. They would walk in at 5:50, clock in, then sit around and slowly get ready for 20 minutes. Like I’m all for wasting the companies time, but I just finished a 12 hour shift and want to go home.”

     

    Boring_Unit7771

    “Waste the company's time all you want, but don't mess with my clock-out time.”

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