Employee discovers coworker faked a family emergency to get paid leave, and after weeks of covering his workload, finds proof he's actually on vacation in Bali: ‘The stress has been immense’

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Overworked employee handling extra responsibilities after a coworker takes extended paid leave for an alleged family crisis.
I work in a small operations team where everyone's role is pretty critical. About three weeks ago, my team member (we'll call him Dan) went to our manager in tears, saying his mother was
diagnosed with a severe, late- stage illness in another country and that he needed an extended paid leave under our compassionate care policy.
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Naturally, everyone felt terrible for him. Management instantly approved his time off, paid him out, and split his duties between me and one other colleague.
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Since then, I've been working 60+ hour weeks. The stress has been immense, but I pushed through because I genuinely thought I was helping a grieving friend through the worst time of his life.
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Here's the problem: yesterday, I was setting up a shared desktop directory for a client project using Dan's old work profile. When I opened his logged-in personal
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browser tab by mistake, there was an active travel itinerary open for a month-long luxury vacation in Bali, booked weeks before he ever made the request to management. To make matters
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worse, I saw a WhatsApp Web message on his screen from his mom, sent yesterday asking him if he remembered to water her plants back at her house down the street. She isn't sick at all. He
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literally fabricated a d_ng parent to take a paid beach holiday while I burn myself out doing two jobs.
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If I go straight to HR or my manager, it's going to trigger a massive investigation, Dan will almost certainly be fired, and it will create nuclear drama in a very
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small team where people still think he's grieving. But if I say nothing, I'm stuck drowning in his workload for another month while knowing he's lying to everyone's face.
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I can't keep doing this hours- wise, and the resentment is eating me alive. How do I handle this without destroying my own standing or looking like a snitch who went digging through someone's personal stuff?
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A luxurious vacation spot in Bali, where an employee is discovered to be traveling after claiming a family emergency to secure paid leave.
rukittenmeeee Why would you be the one to sacrifice? No way am I putting on an extra 20 hours a week. The business can eat it or hire some temps or something.
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BrazenHamster Go straight to your manager: "I've accidentally discovered something unsettling, but I need to let you know". Show them the laptop, exactly as you discovered it. Then it's their move.
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wowieowie You should definitely report it. If your manager finds out and then finds out you knew and said nothing, they will see you as complicit in the fraud. And make no mistake, this is fraud and theft.
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Employee working long hours on a laptop while covering a coworker's workload during his supposed family emergency.
Suspicious-Water-973 Phrase it not as an accusation, but a "hey boss I saw this might be a misunderstanding - but thought I'd share" - which gives the possibility that she is sick, and this was out of date (not going to be the case) but then you arent making an accusation.
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AwaySignificance 1763 before you let guilt stop you, this guy is such an Ish that he'd fake his mother dong, make his coworkers pick up his slack, just so he could get paid leave for a beach holiday. this type of deserves no sympathy, blow him out of the water
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wawkaroo Dont bother to save this person's job. I'm dong out here in the job market, an experienced manager and supporting a special needs kiddo. I would never do anything close to this. He doesn't deserve to keep his job.
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