In small workplaces, “helping out” can quickly turn into overworking yourself.

So when one employee became the default stand-in every time her coworker was out, she began to feel the weight of two jobs, with burnout fast approaching.

But the real fallout came the minute she was shamed by her coworker for complaining about it.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

AITA for complaining about covering for a coworker

One of my coworkers has been gone on and off the past couple of months, sometimes for weeks at a time, due to her husband fighting late-stage cancer.

When she is not in the office, I have to cover her position because it’s a small medical office and there is no one else available who has the clerical training necessary to cover it.

But lately, this employee has started to feel a bit overloaded.

The job I was hired to do is already a lot to handle on a day-to-day basis.

Now when she’s gone, I have to do both jobs at the same time, which is dang near impossible.

She considers herself very capable at her job, but the extra work is threatening her stability.

I’m good at my job because I know what I’m doing in the position.

I’m able to sit in the back office and am left to my own devices for the most part.

But I have just above the bare minimum in training for my coworker’s position, so I’m constantly anxious that I’m going to mess something up.

She also feels like it’s not a match with her skillset.

I’m also not a good fit for her position due to the amount of patient contact it entails because I am not a people person.

I find it very difficult to connect with people, which is a struggle when our patients are used to my bright and bubbly coworker who could talk for days.

She chose a less patient-facing role for this very reason.

I feel like I have to be the same way, which is exhausting.

I applied for my position for that exact reason.

The hard part is that her boss doesn’t seem to be sympathetic at all to her struggles.

I have spoken to my boss about this numerous times, and I’m always told that I just need to be a team player.

Here’s where I might be the AH.

I was venting my frustration about the situation to one of my coworkers who I’m very close with.

Her coworker didn’t seem to understand where she was coming from either.

She got super upset with me and said I was being selfish and that we needed to make our coworker’s life as easy as possible.

She finds this very unfair considering she’s the one picking up most of the slack.

But the thing is that I’m the only one at the office who seems to be shouldering this.

I am sympathetic to what my coworker is going through, and I’m not mad at her for being gone.

No one else around the office has really bothered to help her.

But I am completely over the whole situation and everyone miraculously being nowhere to be found when I need someone to sit at the desk for five minutes to cover the phones or click a button to check a patient in when I’m literally about to *** my pants.

I was just trying to release some frustration.

In the workplace, sometimes you have to be careful who you vent to.

What did Reddit think?

This user agrees this employee is carrying far more than she can handle.

More headcount is definitely needed here.

Feelings don’t take a back seat just because someone else is having a hard time.

This commenter encourages this employee to not overextend herself for a company who wouldn’t think twice about kicking her to the curb.

Compassion is great, but you shouldn’t be forced to shoulder the burden alone.

Teamwork isn’t done by one person.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.