In most workplaces, mistakes are chalked up to stress, tight deadlines, or simple human error.

But when one meticulous employee’s polished reports kept turning into nonsense before reaching clients, she and her boss suspected good ol’ fashioned foul play from a jealous coworker.

So once HR got involved, everything became crystal clear.

Keep reading for the full story.

My coworker tried to sabotage my weekly reports, and ended up getting themselves written up.

I work in a small department of a midsize institution.

It’s the sort of office where everyone knows exactly which desk drawer you keep your candy in (and helps themselves sometimes), so it’s hard for anyone to be sneaky for long.

One employee felt comfortable enough, until strange mistake started appearing in her work.

I’ve been in this role for about six months and recently started noticing weird typos and mistakes showing up in our weekly client update reports — reports that I handle personally.

Normally, I’m pretty meticulous, so at first I assumed I was just tired or losing focus.

It didn’t take long for her supervisor to notice.

Then one morning, my supervisor asked for a quick chat. She pulled out a printed copy of that week’s report, circled random nonsense lines in red, and asked me what was going on.

It looked like I’d typed entire sentences in Wingdings. (For context: it takes effort to deliberately switch to Wingdings, and it’s not something you can just “accidentally” do.)

I was completely baffled. The files on my computer were perfect, and I had the version history to prove it.

She inspects the files very closely, but is still left scratching her head.

So I started double-checking the final PDF after it left my hands, and guess what? The text was being changed after I submitted it, before it went out to clients.

Some lines looked like normal English from my end, but by the time the PDF was emailed, there were random fonts, phrases repeated four times, and even a client name spelled completely backward. It’s like someone wanted me to look incompetent.

Luckily, her boss is on her side, so the two devise a plan.

I told my supervisor that something weird was happening, and she agreed to keep it quiet and investigate. The next week, she set up a shared folder that tracked every single edit along with the user who made it.

Sure enough, a few hours after I uploaded my final doc, my coworker “Stephanie” opened the file under her login and started making these sabotage edits — highlighting entire sections and changing them to weird fonts, leaving them that way, and saving.

Once they tapped HR, the truth started coming out.

HR got involved once we had the evidence.

Turns out Stephanie had been telling some folks I was gunning for her position, and she decided to preemptively make me look bad.

But this indiscretion was going to cost Stephanie big time.

Joke’s on her though — she got written up for tampering with my work product, and I heard she’s now on a performance improvement plan. Personally, I think she should’ve been fired on the spot.

She offered me a flustered apology in the breakroom, saying she was “just stressed and insecure.”

The damage has already been done, though.

I’m still a little uneasy around her because, to me, messing with someone’s work is beyond petty — especially if it risks damaging our reputation with clients.

Anyway, that’s the drama. I never expected to become a detective at my own job, but at least we put an end to the sabotage.

Now I’m double-checking all my files in that shared folder, because once trust is gone, it’s tough to get back.

Seems like it’s every person for themselves in this workplace!

What did Reddit think?

This kinda seems like a fireable offense to this employee.

This is pretty amateur sabotage as far as this commenter is concerned.

This user still holds out hope she’ll be fired eventually.

A PIP could be all part of HR’s plan.

If you mess with someone’s work, HR often messes right back.

Who knew a regular office job would come with a side gig in detective work?

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.