Work from home can offer flexibility, but too much flexibility can be a recipe for imbalance.

So when one employee was criticized for falling behind, they realized their coworker was sidestepping daytime pressure by pushing most of their work into after-hours windows.

But when the employee went to HR to level the playing field, they somehow became the office villain for it.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for going to HR about my coworker?

Before the pandemic happened, my job was not able to be done remotely.

We didn’t have laptops or mobile phones (only PCs and desk phones), and we had no way to access our email and voicemail outside of our office.

We also had no way to access any of the other computer systems we needed to do our jobs.

This included managers too.

Obviously, the shutdown changed everything.

Suddenly, everything was much more flexible.

We were given laptops with Zoom and a phone app (since we couldn’t bring our desk phones home), and now we can do our work through the VPN on our laptops.

My team is me, my coworker, and our manager.

My coworker and I have the same title and duties.

But his coworker works much different hours.

When we got sent home, I noticed my coworker would do work and send emails in the evening (our jobs are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. only, no evenings, weekends, or holidays).

At first, I didn’t care because I thought it didn’t affect me at all. But I realized it does.

It soon became clear that his coworker’s flexibility led to massive headaches for him.

During our work hours, my coworker barely does any work, and anything done is always in the afternoon and not the morning.

So I am left scrambling to do things.

He’s starting to feel like his coworker has an unfair advantage.

When my coworker does work in the evenings and on weekends, it is way more productive because no one else is working (internally or our clients), so there is no pressure or urgency, and it’s quieter and easier to get stuff done.

Basically, my coworker was pushing out and getting way more work done than me because of the lack of pressure and no one else working.

So one day, the employee is formally scrutinized for this.

I got spoken to about my productivity compared to my coworker by my manager’s manager.

I took what I knew to HR.

It soon came out that others in the company were doing the same thing.

My manager is close to retirement and is known to be coasting (replacement starts after New Year’s, so I am just waiting), so I felt like HR was the best bet.

I also found out someone in another division was doing the same thing as my coworker.

Now the board sent a memo that all work systems will not be accessible except during working hours, and the rest of the time you won’t be able to log in.

No exceptions.

So when HR passed down their judgement, his coworkers are irate.

Also, my coworker and the other person were paid for the “extra” hours they worked to avoid trouble from the labor board over unpaid overtime.

A warning was given that anyone caught trying to access the system outside of work hours or work overtime will be fired.

My coworker is furious.

I mentioned what I was going to do to someone who is a friend of mine outside of work, but it turned out that person was the other one who was doing the same thing as my coworker and told my coworker.

Both of them are angry at me, and so are a few others who weren’t even doing what they were.

Others in his life say he should have left it alone, but he isn’t so sure.

They all said I should have just minded my business. I did until I got in trouble for not being as productive as my coworker. Lots are mad at me.

My manager’s manager apologized and gave me a paid day off for speaking to me about my productivity.

I didn’t do the same thing as my coworker because not helping our clients would have had real-world consequences for them, and they aren’t corporate or rich, so I didn’t want to do that to them.

Speaking out often makes you pretty unpopular.

What did Reddit think?

This employee shouldn’t be made to feel bad about looking after their best interests.

In an office like this, sometimes you have to cover your bases.

Maybe the real villain is the company for enabling such a toxic culture.

Being a good coworker also means being a team player.

In a working environment like this, no one deserves an unfair advantage.

Sometimes speaking up is worth ruffling a few feathers.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.