What Was She Even DOING, Then?!

I’ve been covering for [Coworker]. She has some big project, and I don’t mind sitting in a few meetings once in a while if it helps a coworker out.

I hear that her project gets cancelled, but she still acts like she is the busiest person in the company. I stop covering her meetings as I do actually have other work to do.

She takes offence to this, but it was a favour, after all, and I legitimately was getting behind with my work. I make some excuse and she stops asking.

One morning, my boss pulls me aside.

Boss: “I’m going to ask you to support [Coworker]; she’s really busy at the moment.”

Me: “I have my own priorities to deal with. Are we sure this is the best use of my time?”

Boss: “Not really, but [Project] is getting a lot of attention and it’s apparently really important.”

Me: “That’s been cancelled; I heard it from [Senior Manager] himself.”

Boss: “What? I’m getting to the bottom of this.”

It turned out that [Coworker] didn’t know the project had been cancelled, as she never attended any of the meetings and actually didn’t have work to do. She just got her name added to the project team when she heard how important it was and then pretended to be busy with it without really knowing what it was about.

She got a warning and a lesson in not fobbing work onto others.