Coworker threw him under the bus in a meeting — then got mad when he refused to cover his weekend shift

Team players who help out are often overburdened with tasks from the lazy ones. An IT professional (u/affectionatelove8076) straight away refused to cover for one of their coworkers, even though it would've provided them with an extra income. During a meeting, when their boss confronted them about a delay, the coworker acted smart, trying to blame the other person. Later, when they asked why he had thrown them under the bus in front of their boss, the coworker just brushed it off as if nothing happened. However, he regretted it immediately when karma bit back. The person shared the story on Reddit on February 5.

They were part of the IT department of a mid-sized company and had been working together for about a year. In fact, they often collaborated on issues, but lately, the coworker had been acting weird. A few weeks ago, their manager confronted them about a specific delay during a meeting. Both of them had worked together on it and had spent 3 days resolving it. "When the manager asked what happened, my coworker literally said, 'Yeah, I tried to fix it quickly, but he kept insisting we do it his way, and it ended up taking way longer,'" they recalled. The person was shocked because they had decided on the approach together. "I tried to clarify, but the manager had already moved on, and I looked like the difficult one who slows everything down," the employee explained. After the meeting, they even confronted the coworker, who shrugged it off.

They moved on from that incident, but the real twist came when the coworker requested them to cover for him on a Saturday because he had some personal work. "Normally, I would probably say yes because the extra pay is decent, and I'm trying to keep some money that I won on Stake saved up, but after that meeting, I am just not feeling like doing him any favors," they explained. The person immediately refused his request, but the coworker got pissed. "He got annoyed, saying I'm being petty and that 'work stuff should stay at work.' But like... why should I help someone who made me look bad to our boss?" the person asked.

Having supportive coworkers is the biggest green flag. In fact, it's so important for some that they even quit jobs because of problematic coworkers. For instance, a survey by Comparably found that 1 in 3 respondents has had a coworker who made them want to quit. They also found that women (43%) are more likely than men (32%) to want to leave their job because of a coworker; similarly, another survey of 1,000 managers, senior leaders, and individual contributors revealed that more than half (57%) of respondents have left a job because of their manager. This explains just how important it is for people to have supportive peers in the workplace.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit story, u/mcindy28 commented, "NTA. If he said, 'Don't be petty and keep work stuff at work,' he KNOWS full well he was the jerk. You don't owe him any favors." Similarly, u/flaky-resolution-123 wrote, "NTJ — covering his shift is work-related, not personal, just because it’s the weekend and he needs it off for 'personal things.' He knows what he did was wrong and wanted to brown-nose the boss for brownie points. I’d do the same thing you did tbh. Just make sure that you are polite and professional otherwise with him at work, though, so he can’t build a case, and keep a note of any interactions with him."

More on Scoop Upworthy

Employee amusingly unmasks a lazy co-worker who kept dumping his work on them without remorse

Internet divided over employee's expensive revenge against firm that denied her a promotion

A rule-obsessed employee made work miserable for others — until one co-worker gave him a taste of his own medicine