In the workplace, lines between ethical behavior and friendly favors can get tangled fast.

When one professional refused to leak interview questions to help out a friend’s connection, her friend took her integrity as a betrayal.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for not offering my work besties friend more help to prep for an interview?

I (F29) work with my friend James (M40) at a tech company.

He referred his friend from a previous job, who he considers a sister (F45), to come and work at our company.

His friend had passed through the first round of interviews without a hitch.

Prior to the interview, there is a mathematical test which she has questions about, and I happily answered them.

She passed the math test and progressed to the Zoom interview.

Now, it just so happened that her interview was with me and my boss.

But that’s when James crossed the line.

The interview was on Wednesday, and my friend James calls me on Tuesday to ask for the questions.

To which I respond in a casual way, “You know I cannot give you those,” which he accepts, and we move on.

This time, the interview doesn’t go near as well.

Wednesday, the interview takes place and she doesn’t do well.

The interview questions are basic, such as: How do you prioritize your workload? What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done at work? Etc.

As she doesn’t do well, she doesn’t pass to the next stage.

Now her friend is pointing the finger at her.

Now my friend is mad at me because I didn’t help her more to prep for the interview?

He thinks because she is a sister to him, I should have read between the lines that she needed help and helped more?

But she thinks she was only keeping things fair.

From my point of view, the fact that I was doing the interview in the first place was crossing an ethical line, and I wasn’t comfortable doing more.

If it was so important for him that I help her, he should have said so?

I have said all of the above with him, but he’s still set in his ways that I dropped the ball and I was selfish by not helping her.

But I’m not friends with this person. We have met 4–5 times socially.

AITA?

Turns out, even if you follow the rules, you still can’t win with some people.

Redditors weigh in with their thoughts.

This user thinks her instincts were spot on with this one.

Sometimes you just need to look out for your own best interests, especially when it comes to your own job security.

The ethics of this were already very shaky, according to this user.

Whether she has a connection or not, she should still be able to demonstrate that she could do the job effectively.

After all, her career is on the line too.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.