Coworkers kept trashing colleague in private chat while sitting next to her — until one text mistakenly landed in her inbox

Gossiping about co-workers can be risky if you unintentionally send a message to the wrong person. When a Reddit user's (u/Immeadete-Evening) co-worker was gossiping about her to their supervisor, she caught her coworker sending a message that was not intended for her. Sharing the awkward and funny after-story on December 3, the author's post has gained over 1,300 upvotes so far.

When u/Immeadete-Evening started her current job, she realized that her team was small and comprised of fairly young members. Her supervisor, Tom, was a man in his 30s and often enjoyed bonding with his team members. She also had an intern named Jane, who was close to her supervisor. "I knew they were close. Again, the team is young, and a lot of young women, including myself, have been getting hired recently," the author wrote. She was aware that they gossiped and was invited to join them. However, once they realized that the author was not interested in engaging in frivolous discussions, they excluded her by creating a private chat. "I know this because I sat next to Tom and saw him on his monitor, clear as day. Couldn't help it. While demonstrating something to me during training, I noticed he'd pinned their channel of private messages," she wrote.

One day, Tom asked her if she could come to the office the next day. However, he soon realized that he had addressed the author instead of Jane. "Then Jane answers his question and I realize he was talking to her. No biggie. Whatever. Tom apologizes for addressing me by accident, I laugh, I get back to work," she wrote. As the author got back to her desk, she noticed a message popping out that read, "Lmao she was so SOOO offended you called me OP," and it vanished in two seconds. "I laugh again and say, 'oh, I'm not offended. Don't worry, I was just confused.' Meanwhile, Jane can't get away from me fast enough," the author wrote.

Fortunately, the author was transferred to another department, while her co-worker Jane still avoids looking her in the eye. "Seriously, on one of our last days together, we were alone in the office and didn't say a word to each other, not even good morning," she added. By sending a wrong text to the author, the co-worker was reduced to embarrassment and thus found it difficult to confront her about their private chat.

A 2015 study by Anna Andersson examined something similar, analyzing how people interpret mis-sent messages and found that texting creates frequent openings for mistakes, misunderstandings, and accidental disclosures. The study was conducted using a corpus of 16 text dialogues and focused on understanding the linguistic and communicative factors that led to these dialogues being treated as humorous by users. The study also revealed certain humorous themes, such as allusions to sexual conduct or bodily functions, generation gaps, and technological challenges, among others. 

Soon after the post went viral, many online users shared their hilarious reactions. u/CharlieBr87 wrote, "I did this once. The front desk girl was VERY close to a young man on my team. I also had a friend whose name started with the same letter. One morning, I sent my friend a message like 'oh she gets his lunch like all the time, like they must be hooking up' I got a message back on teams: 'Why would you send this to me?' I responded out of sheer embarrassment 'because I’m an a**hole…'" u/000-f shared, "I had this happen to me, but it was 100% an on-purpose mean girl tactical move. Even a 'whoops, teehee' message afterwards." u/gailser wrote, "A big win for you and a life lesson for your petty ex coworkers. Sounds like high school."

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