A corporate employee shared a post about a friend of 20 years who has worked at the same place for the past 10 years. The user wrote about their dilemma of hearing the friend’s managers talk about firing them, and they knew the user had overheard their conversation. The Reddit user did not want to get involved and asked whether this made them bad. The post shared under r/AmItheAsshole on October 19 drew 42 comments as of publication.
The user wrote that after the COVID-19 pandemic, they began working in the office a few days a week and from home on other days. “We all get to decide our individual work day rotation. This is just something that hasn’t changed … yet.”
The user wrote that they use programs that inadvertently show when the employees are online, offline or just go away from their computer. The poster said that some people in the office have started to notice when their friend gets away from the keyboard while they work from home.
“I know that others are noticing because I overhear a couple of individuals who are higher on the totem pole discussing it when they think I’m not paying attention or not there (we have pretty private cubicles),” the user wrote. The user also wrote that the friend would go away for several hours at a time during their eight-hour shift.
“A week or so ago, I overheard higher-level employees discussing that my friend is now being monitored by management and how unfortunate it is, but my friend has been doing this very consistently lately, in addition to mistakes being made and deadlines being missed. They mentioned that these are all fireable offenses, and apparently my friend's direct supervisor has been notified of these issues,” the user wrote.
It was during this conversation that the user wrote their phone rang and they had to answer it so the higher-level employees realized they were not alone. The Reddit user mentioned that it was only those three in the office that day, and neither of the two higher-level employees were the direct supervisors or managers.
“My dilemma is … I don’t want to get involved. I don’t want this [sic] is going back on me because they know I heard them and shouldn’t have. I am not willing to put myself, job, and family on the line for someone else no matter how long we’ve been friends. Does this make me the AH?” the user concluded.
The comments section was filled with reactions. One commenter wrote, “NTA. I was in this EXACT position last year. Best friend of 12 years at the same company, I heard from my manager they were about to put her on a PIP. I told her and she freaked out, told our boss I was spreading rumors, and I almost got written up. You can't win. Protect your job first, especially with a family. He made his choices going AFK for hours.”
Another commenter gave a suggestion and wrote, “Just tell your friend that you've been overhearing management talking about people being afk for too long and you just wanted to give a heads up to be careful. You don't have to say that you have noticed them being afk or anything like that. Just word it as a general point of caution. You don't have to tell your friend it was them specifically or who exactly you overheard. You can even say it was several different higher ups at different times.”
The Daily Dot could not independently verify the events described in the post. The details above reflect the original poster’s account and comments shared on r/AmItheAsshole. The identities of the poster, the friend, the employer and the commenters have not been confirmed.
