AIW for telling my coworker to stop using me as her excuse for being late?
I work in a small office where mornings are kind of annoying because someone has to be on the phones right away. So if you’re late, people notice. Not in a dramatic way, but our manager does keep track.
One of my coworkers, “Laura,” is late a lot. Usually 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes more. I never really cared because that’s between her and our manager.
Except lately she has started dragging me into it.
The first time, my manager said something like, “Was traffic bad by your side too? Laura said you both got stuck near the same road.” I was confused because I got in on time and traffic was normal. I just said no, not really, and moved on.
Then another coworker joked that Laura was late because she “helped me with boxes” in the parking lot. I had no boxes. I didn’t even see Laura until she walked in late with coffee.
Last week she came in late again and apparently told our manager I had called her because I couldn’t get the side door open. That one actually annoyed me because now it sounded like I was the reason phones weren’t covered.
My manager asked me about it later and I said I had no idea what she meant.
I pulled Laura aside and told her to stop using me in her excuses. She got defensive and said it wasn’t a big deal, she was just trying not to get written up. I told her I don’t care what excuse she uses, but leave me out of it.
Now she’s cold with me and says I made her look bad. A couple coworkers think I should have just let it go since it was “small office stuff.”
AIW?