An office worker posted about a work conflict on Reddit, likely hoping for some understanding from the online community and advice. Instead, commenters were divided about the legitimacy of their complaint and whether the poster was the actual problem in the situation.
In the post on the anti-work Reddit thread, a user said that they work in an open-concept office, so for the most part, everyone can see what the other is doing.
That day, they were trying to think through a difficult problem, so they leaned back in their office chair and closed their eyes for deep thinking.
A co-worker noticed them and threw an object in their direction. But OP didn’t react to the shenanigans.
But, because OP didn’t react in any way, the co-worker thought they were sleeping on the job and reported OP to their boss.
“If I was sleeping she would have most likely triggered a PTSD episode (I was once almost killed in an attempted murder x3 via handgun at a previous job),” OP wrote.
About 20 minutes later, the company’s operations manager told the poster they needed to go home for sleeping at work.
“I’m now afraid I may lose my job because I was simply leaning back in my fucking chair,” OP wrote.
Articles from several law firms confirm that sleeping at work is a fireable offense.
Here’s where commenters say it gets tricky. OP prefaced the situation by admitting that they were, in fact, “a little tired” that morning but drank three cups of coffee and were “fine.”
They also said they’re on several medications that could make them drowsy, “but im able to fight it off pretty well.”
The original post has over 1,800 upvotes and over 180 comments as of Thursday morning.
Some people were surprised OP agreed to leave work when they were the one who was being bothered by a co-worker throwing an object at them.
OP replied, sharing that they think they would have made the situation worse by staying and also said it was a generally embarrassing situation since they were asked to leave in front of other co-workers.
Other commenters said they didn’t buy the story.
“Based on all that I’m betting this isn’t the first time OP has been caught sleeping, whether real or perceived, and that this incident was the latest in a pattern of behavior,” a commenter wrote.
“Also loses credibility because if I was focusing on a problem, my story would revolve around my state of mind when I was trying to focus and perhaps the nature of the complex issue; not how tired i am while also somehow being wide awake,” another said.
The Daily Dot reached out to OP for comment via Reddit chat.
