Not every coworker is our friend. We tend to learn that the hard way as we get better acquainted with out team members. At the end of the day, some coworkers tend to show off their true colors, thus revealing hidden agendas about their envy toward the people around them. If we aren’t careful enough, these sneaky and conniving people may cause the downfall of our career. In these stories, people shame the coworker that targeted them with the foulest of intentions.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
Family Matters
“I was a supervisor for a company I enjoyed working for. I worked very hard to keep the employees and the operation running smoothly. It took me several years and a lot of hard work to get the company to where I felt that I made a difference for my employees.
Out of desperation, my brother came to me one day and asked if I could help him out by hiring my sister-in-law. Right away, I said no because there was a policy that stated we couldn’t hire any family members.
My brother was in the military and urgently asked me a second time to please consider hiring my sister-in-law so they could get more income. I told him she could apply for a different department because I didn’t want to get into any trouble. After that, my sister-in-law ended up applying and getting hired to work under a different supervisor.
Soon after, a position in my department opened up. My boss, who knew she was related to me, moved her to my department. I agreed but pulled my sister-in-law to the side and told her she was not going to get any special treatment from me because I treated all of my employees the same.
She said she understood and went on to work in one of our offices. Not too much longer after she started her new role, my sister-in-law began to gossip with my other employees. She would go by each office in the department and tell the employees there about what employees at the other officer were saying.
My sister-in-law started a lot of drama between the two offices and everyone knew who was going back and forth between the offices. They ended up singling her out and she became upset and came to me with a complaint claiming she was being treated poorly by her coworkers.
I told her I would talk to them but couldn’t promise that they would want anything to do with her afterward. She apparently didn’t like my approach to handling the situation. Out of spite, my sister-in-law went on to tell my brother and family that I was being unfair to her. Then she ended up calling corporate to report that she and I were related.
As punishment, I was demoted. I ended up resigning not too long after.
The entire family saw her as the victim and I still to this day don’t know what she told them!
Either way, I am happy how things went because I went on to school and obtained a license for nursing!”
Three Against One
“I worked as a retail store manager at a ladies’ clothing store.
I believed my assistant manager was stealing clothes. Once already I had caught her taking items from the lost and found without probable cause. I verbally warned her but it was to no effect.
One day, I came to work unannounced during a morning shift that she worked and found two trash bags with clothes and jewelry at the back door waiting to be taken to the ‘dumpster.’
In her defense, the assistant manager and the sales associate that was working the morning shift with her told me they were damaged items that were marked out of stock, although I and the district manager were the only people authorized to make such a decision.
I took pictures and wrote the assistant manager up on the spot. I then reported the incident to my district manager. However, the district manager and loss prevention showed up one week later and told me to leave the property. I had been fired, but the reason made no sense at all.
I was told I was being dismissed for inapproriately harassing the assistant manager, associate on duty, and another associate who was also in on the scam that day. The three of them got together and made up a story about me making suggestive comments and touching them inappropriately.
Although my district manager admitted to me he knew they were lying to cover themselves, three stories against mine were overwhelming in the eyes of H.R. and they couldn’t risk a lawsuit.
I lost my job and couldn’t use them on my employment history after 4 years I worked there.”
Nice Try!
“I worked nights stocking shelves at Walmart during my college years. It was a decent job but I had a support manager that hated me. She was always on my case and always bragged about how much more ‘work’ she did than me even though she only stocked housewares, which wasn’t a lot to boast about.
One night I was restocking the pets aisle with another employee. There were only two of us that night and we had gotten in a lot of dog food. There were over twenty-five pallets with most of them being bags of dog food.
We had gotten through about ten of the pallets in record time because we wanted to get done. After we were nearly finished, we stopped to take a breather. As we chilled, my coworker and I chit-chatted for a few minutes.
Of course, that’s when the support manager walked by and saw us.
She didn’t say anything but had a bitter look on her face as she marched away. The support manager had gone and told the assistant manager in charge that night that we weren’t working and in her words ‘needed to be fired.’
When the assistant manager came by, we hadn’t moved and were still talking.
‘What are you guys up to?’ He said with a raised eyebrow.
I looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Training for management.’
This made the assistant manager laugh his head off. He then proceeded to stand there and shoot the breeze with us for the next forty-five minutes. The support manager walked past several times giving us an evil glare.
Once we were done talking up a storm, we all went on our mandatory thirty-minute lunch break where we talked some more in the break room. Then we came back out and hammered out every single remaining pallet and finished in enough time to assist the support manager in finishing up her department before quitting time because she wasn’t able to finish. This was probably because she was to busy spying on us.
The support manager never did like me. After what happened, she stopped trying to get me fired. In fact, she flat-out ignored me unless she absolutely had to talk to me.
I was fine with that.”
Wink Wink!
“I was once the IT manager of an accounting firm.
The married office manager knew I was single and asked me on a few occasions to come to her house to ‘work on computers’ when her husband was out of town.
I was creeped out, but I always politely refused. However, when I started dating a girl from the office, the office manager turned into a raging nutcase. Her behavior got much worse, almost desperate toward me. I was able to move my office to another floor to get further away from her.
In retaliation, the office manager called the branch manager and reported that I was ignoring her floor.
Fast forward a year of her trying to sabotage me and she finally made up a story that ended up getting me in serious trouble. The office manager said I told someone they were getting laid off before they were actually told.
I did not, but it was enough to get me fired. When I filed for unemployment, the office manager answered the claim by saying I was fired for cause and refused to allow unemployment. I explained to the unemployment office that I had been harassed and that I had several witnesses. Out of frustration, I told them to let the office manager know I was seeking legal counsel.
And just like that, my unemployment claim was approved.”
I Did What Now?
“At my job I had an important meeting coming up and I needed twenty-five copies of some documents. I had submitted the request to our print shop within the required time frame, and because there were about four other big presentations with this client on the same day as mine, all the administrative assistants were busy.
So I went to grab the documents myself because we were preparing all of our materials to ship to the site. Well, my stuff wasn’t ready, and the print shop lady apparently wasn’t happy with all the work she had to do.
When I showed up, she, in her normally aggressive, pissed-off manner told me to come back later in the day. I calmly thanked her and went back to my office. Maybe an hour later I got a call from my boss to visit him in the office.
I was a little confused by the sudden impromptu meeting, but I went in and closed the door behind me. With a grave face, my boss asked me if I had a problem at the print shop.
I casually told him my materials weren’t ready yet, but they should be later today. My boss then asked if I had complained or raised my voice.
Confused, I responded with, ‘What? No. Why?’
Then my boss said, ‘The print shop owner called me and said one of her employees accused you of swearing at her and angrily demanding your materials be done immediately.’
It was evident I was shocked by the accusation. Luckily I had a reputation for being pleasant and kind. I told him she had been brusque and unpleasant like usual, but nothing out of the ordinary transpired. My boss then said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. I knew that didn’t sound like you.’
So that was pretty much that. I did inform my boss I wouldn’t be going to the print shop anymore. I didn’t until that same employee left, years later. It really mystified me that she would completely make up a story, for no reason I even knew of.”
Jealousy Kills
“I had recently started working for an optical company in Seattle. It was a small office. Most of the employees had been working there for years.
My ‘boss’ was a lady who smoked like a chimney. She wasn’t my direct supervisor, but she had worked there a long time and knew the ropes.
It was obvious she didn’t want me there from day one. Later I found out that just before I started, her boyfriend told her he thought they should see other people. Awkwardly enough, the two of them lived in the same household even after the breakup. I imagined it was a really rough thing to go through, but it had nothing to do with me.
However, I was about ten years younger than her, skinnier, and prettier. I had also just gotten engaged. She saw I had all this going for me and didn’t stand a chance against her blatant jealousy.
During the time I was there I also discovered that she was the company ‘call girl’. It was gross.
They kept me on for about three and a half months, then without ceremony or explanation fired me. When I wrote and asked for a written explanation of why I was fired, I got a letter that was full of lies about my performance and attendance.
I could have sued them but I was just so happy to be out of that environment. End the end I got a much better job.”
Harder They Fall
“I worked in an office with a man who I’d known since childhood.
In 1974, we started out as enemies, but by 7th grade, we became close friends. After college, we both moved back to the same city. In a few years, both of us wound up working for the same company.
We were both top performers on different teams within the same department. We weren’t exactly ‘close’ anymore, but I didn’t think we were enemies until he made it known he was after my career.
One day, I was called into my ‘friend’s’ manager’s office. I was accused of cheating on my productivity log. For the record, I didn’t cheat, but I did work a case in an unusual way, which gave me a slight amount of extra productivity credit. In other words, the amount of extra credit I received that month for the incident was less than one minute for the whole month which was not enough to affect the final monthly score but raised eyebrows nonetheless.
I pointed this out to the manager, but he didn’t understand our jobs, so it went over his head. He only saw the unusual way I handled the case, and that I got productivity credit I didn’t deserve.
Later I found out that my ex-friend had found this case while unethically prying into my work. He was fueling his manager to take the matter more seriously. This ‘friend’ had reviewed two hundred cases of mine to find this unusual case. I’m not sure where he even found the time to do that.
I explained why I worked the case in a non-standard way. The computer system would not allow it to close, so I used my supervisor entitlements to alter some of the non-essential data so I could close the case manually. I was a very trusted employee, and I didn’t give it any thought. In fact, after I had completed it, I thought it was a very creative way to handle it.
But I lost the argument. I had to sign a resignation letter that HR held onto in case I did one more ‘dishonest’ thing. I was warned that they would consider me resigned, and I wouldn’t even get unemployment pay if something else came up. I also got my supervisor privileges taken away.
I was devastated, but the worst part was my ‘friend’ spreading gossip around the company about the incident. Soon everyone knew the thing I had done.
For two years, I suffered humiliation in that department.
But then something wonderful happened.
I applied for a management job, and so did my ‘friend.’ I was the one selected for the job, and he got to watch bitterly as I was promoted. My new manager, fully aware of my so-called dis commendation, pulled the offensive documents out of my HR file and handed them to me. He then said I should do whatever I wanted with them because he didn’t believe a word of it.
I looked through it and wasn’t all that surprised to find it full of notes in my friend’s handwriting.
It went into the shred bin.
A few years later, we were all laid off, but I got another last laugh. I got the management severance package, which worked out to about two years of pay plus benefits and perks. My ‘friend’ got the hourly employee package, which was about six months of pay with no benefits.
It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.
This was more than ten years ago. I never saw him again.”
Gotta Be Quicker Than That!
“We worked for an academic bookstore at our local university.
It took about fifteen minutes to start everything up in the morning before we could open for business. That meant that someone had to start fifteen minutes early, but also got off fifteen minutes early. I was the one selected for this, and I didn’t mind a bit because that last little chunk of the day always moved slower than molasses.
My colleague, who’d been sabotaging me since I started the job, had just returned from her maternity leave. Those were the most peaceful six months of my life. On her first day back, she asked our boss: ‘If I get here earlier than Cathy and I open everything, do I get to leave early?’
He replied that whoever started working early got to leave early.
The next morning, my coworker arrived half an hour early, certain she’d get there before me.
What she didn’t know was that the friend I carpooled with had changed his start time at his job, so I was arriving an hour before my shift started.
During that time, I was able to get everything ready to go and then play on the computer until it was time to open the doors. My coworker came in and had a huge smile on her face until she came around the corner and realized I was there and everything was done. I’ll treasure the look on her face forever. I knew my coworker was going to try to beat me in, open the store and then tell the boss I was coming in late every day. Her plan failed beautifully.
My coworker was stubborn, though. She still tried to beat me in for the next four mornings running. She eventually gave up when somebody told her why I was always there before her. Half an hour she was willing to sacrifice, but a full hour just wasn’t worth it. My coworker didn’t speak to me for a week after that.
It was the last peaceful week I ever had while working there.”
Backstabber
“An ex-colleague (and former friend) of mine, stabbed me in the back to try and take my job.
I actually hired her into the business. I had worked with her for ten years beforehand. I knew my friend was exemplary at her work and understood our industry well, so she fit the bill for a job my new employer was recruiting for, as a fellow manager on our leadership team.
Unbeknownst to me, my friend began gossiping behind my back. She implied to others that I wasn’t doing any work, and lied by saying she asked me for things that I hadn’t delivered. My so-called friend was blaming me for just about everything, but these scenarios were completely made up.
After a particularly bad situation that resulted in me having to dismiss several members of staff, things heated up a little.
Long story short, we needed to cut in-house costs but also make more sales. I wanted to train and upskill a section of the existing customer support team to become a sales team, rather than get rid of anyone. Everyone on the team was great and some already had sales experience.
My friend said she supported this in our leadership meeting, only to secretly approach our CEO with a plan that we should outsource the sales to a friend of hers who had an outsourcing company.
The result of this was that I had to dismiss three great employees.
When I found out what she’d done, I confronted my friend, but she claimed she’d misunderstood my plan. With the fakest voice, she said she would rather have saved jobs. When other members of staff discovered my friend’s betrayal, more and more stories began to surface of times she had been destroying my reputation behind my back.
She was an utterly horrible person. Ultimately she damaged my reputation with our CEO so much that he also behaved disgustingly toward me, so I left.
At my leaving party, as my husband and I were on our way out and saying our goodbyes, my friend grabbed my arm and pulled me towards her.
She gushed, ‘Good Luck on Monday! I hope you love your new job! I just wanted to say, I know we had our ups and downs but… you and me are alright, aren’t we?‘
I smiled at her and said, ‘Absolutely not.’
I turned away, walked out and I’ve never spoken to her again.
I ended up finding a much better job at a great company, where I still am today. My friend, on the other hand, got her wish and took on some of my duties after I left. Last I heard she couldn’t keep up with the pace and stress of the role, and the business eventually fell apart.”