'She lied to me multiple times': Employee lies about 'family emergency' when needing coverage, coworker refuses to cover them

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Jun 27, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

Is it right to lie about your reasons for needing a shift covered?

It's never a good idea to lie about what's going on in your life, even at work. It doesn't engender trust, and trust is a hard thing to lose. It happens, though. Sometimes you just need to call out of work, and you need an excuse. Maybe you had something come up that day, a plan that you didn't want to say no to, or something outside of your control came to pass. You need your shift covered, and you know who you need to ask for it. But you're worried that they might say no, so you exaggerate your story. This isn't a great idea, because it's never right to deceive someone. You wouldn't want someone to deceive you, so you shouldn't deceive them. But sometimes it happens, and that's exactly what happened in this story, where a coworker found out that their colleague was lying to them. When you work closely with someone, you probably hope that you're on the same team. That you're in it together. But maybe you learn something that you feel betrayed by, and there is no going back. That's what happened to the worker in this story, who found out that their coworker had been keeping the truth from them for quite some time.

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A woman sits in front of a computer
Sometimes you find out that the nature of your relationship with someone is not what you thought it was, or should be. Sometimes you can never go back from this kind of truth uncovering. That's what happened here, in a story between two coworkers. One of them thought they were helping the other out in a time of need, but it turned out that couldn't be farther from the truth. When they stumbled upon them outside of work, everything started to change. Keep reading to see what happened between these two workers and decide what you think about it. Then read what commenters had to say to the person who shared the story.
Am I in the wrong for telling my coworker I won't cover her shifts anymore after finding out why she always needs them covered?

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Commenters agreed that it wasn't wrong to be upset.

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