Receptionist Lies to HR About Coworker Being Condescending to Her, HR Refuses To Help

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jul 29, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

What do you do when you can't go to HR for help? 

Sometimes you find out that you're in a workplace that doesn't respect you, and you just have to live with that. Or you have to extricate yourself out of there as quickly as possible. But this isn't always possible on the timeline that you hope for, and that's something that you have to contend with. The person who was sharing their story on the work subreddit was in the middle of dealing with something like that, and was looking for a little sympathy from those around him. When you're dealing with a coworker that you just don't get along with, there are only so many options that you have. You could try and just work around it, but that only gets you so far. You could try and just suffer through it, but that won't get you anywhere. The person in this story tried to do the right thing and go to HR, but it quickly backfired. Sometimes you try to do the right thing, and it still doesn't work out for you. What do you do then? When you've exhausted all of your options and tried to make it all better, but it didn't work? This is when you turn to the internet for a little bit of advice. Keep scrolling to read what happened here and see what you think. 

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  • A group of coworkers sit around a table at work discussing something
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    Subjects are models.

    A group of coworkers sit around a table at work discussing something

  • I recorded a coworker and proved that she lied to HR about me being condescending to her.

    I had an issue with the receptionist since she started at the company, she is very defensive when you ask her to do something the way its supposed to be done by the process. She checks faxes and sorts them by department, there are 4 different dept at this company and its pretty simple based on a file #
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • search in our internal system. Problem is different departments operate with different deadlines, so its common for one department to receive over most of the faxes in a day, and there is no deadline on them to respond to who sent the fax, and my department there is a 14 day
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • deadline, sometimes 30 day deadline to address some claims. So if the other department gets the fax and forwards to me, I can be too late to respond and lose certain rights to address an asset (legal matter). Also she forwards calls and we constantly get calls we are not supposed to get, if
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • she transfered it right the first time, it wouldn't take more time to figure out which department to transfer it to. It feels like she transfers calls by eenie meenie money mo method. Long story short, she s ks and isnt a good receptionist. She even got offended when I brought her a letters to mail and put in envelopes and she came back saying its not part of her job. I let it go
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • The issue is I missed a deadline because I got a fax too late from a creditor and wasnt able to send a notice in time to realize on property and ended up losing an asset to a secured creditor, and why i got in sh, that asset had some equity. I got in sh for that and I later had to prove to my boss I got the fax too late and
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  • why I sent the notice too late. Manager told me to talk to her so it doesnt happen again. I asked him to do it too, he did, and said to her that I will provide more training again to her.
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  • When i went to speak to her about it i explained again which faxes to look out for to send to me, explained why thats important she sends to the right department. I was not yelling, I am a professional and was very mindful of my tone. She went to HR and put in a complaint that I was r de to her. I ended up trying to defend myself, and long story short it was she said he said scenario, I got that instance in my file now.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • Since, I ended up either only communicating with her through email or recording when I do talk to her on my phone voice recorder app because I dont trust her. And of course, it happened again. I sent an email to her and went to show her which fax I was
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  • talking about alwhile recording, and I was not short with her, it was the other way around. So she goes to put in a complaint, and HR calls me in I already have the email and recording ready.
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  • HR gives me the usual spiel, that there was an incident report, she mentioned i was condescending to her, and proceeds to tell me its my second incident. I pull out the records, email the recording and several others that i have in my recent inventory of every interaction we had, she says she will review and I can go back to work. I also emailed my manager after about this conversation with HR. I am still waiting on the result of that, i dont know if ill get in sh for recording her but here we a
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr

  • When you're having a dispute with a coworker, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about reporting it. There are certain channels that you have to use to make sure everything is above board. You would hate to end up in a situation where what you said is turned back at you because you didn't go through the proper process. Things can move a little slower in the business world because of that, and you have to realize that. Keep reading this story and let us know in the comments what you think about it.

  • Two women shake each other's hands at the office
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    Subjects are models representing story
    Two women shake each other's hands at the office

  • Commenters gave their opinions and advice.

    Guilty-Goose3351 Sounds like you CYA'd the best you could. at least you'll just be int trouble for recording and not being dismissive and now everyone knows she's full of it.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • InsGuy2023 Its 2026. Each department should have their own direct fax line. No need to pay a receptionist salary.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • zeptillian "they understand I recorded because I wasnt being believed on many instances!!! Asked not to do it again, and moving forward all tasks for her to do go though the COO."
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • Be careful, it sounds like you are dealing with a nepotism hire if the requests to the receptionist must go through the COO instead of them just firing the incompentent receptionist that has been demonstrated to negativly impact the company and was caught red handed lying about their coworkers in order to get them in trouble.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • If "can't do their job properly" and "lies to blame others for their own mistakes" = special hand holding by the COO instead. of immediate termination, I would start looking for a new job and would have a consultation with a lawyer becasue that sh is not normal or ok.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • An executive is now covering for someone who tried multiple times to get you fired. Watch your back and keep recording.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • Imsortofok The only person that should be correcting her work is her manager. Make the manager do their job. If they don't know your job well enough to explain, then manager needs to be present when you are explaining proper procedure to this person. I will be surprised if HR doesn't reprimand or fire you for recording regardless of policy and law.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • shellshokd212 Two things: 1 who faxes anymore! Jesus! The 1990s called ... 2 what a lot of effort you had to expend for a receptionist? What a waste of everyone's time. The COO now has to wrangle THE RECEPTIONIST? Ridiculous. What the hell company is this? I want to avoid them as a vendor.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • Outlandish_Gringo Got it. Don't give up - especially since your boss has your back. That is the key factor here
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • Loydx Just only email with her manager cc'd. It's really not smart to potentially break the law when you have a tool that saves all your correspondence automatically.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • u2125mike2124 As soon as I read the COO has to monitor her workflow. I wonder the veracity of this post is real Because if a C Suite has to get involved in lower level employees workflow instead of their direct manager, this is either a really c py company to work for, or this post is made up.
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr
  • Outlandish_Gringo If she's doing that to you, even when you're nice and respectful, she, most likely, is doing it to everyone else too. I don't like wishing bad things on people, but people like her deserve to be working at McDonald's. Hope she gets fired
    via ThrowRASubject-Seekr

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