It’s harsh to say, but you can never fully let your guard down at work.

What would you do if your coworkers betrayed you in the sneakiest way? One person recently shared a shocking story about this on Reddit. Here’s what went down.

My coworker “accidentally” deleted my entire project folder right before the deadline

So I work in a small marketing team where we each manage our own client accounts.

Last month I was wrapping up a big campaign for a client who, let’s just say, is very particular and has made people cry over font choices.

Sounds like a dream.

The campaign had taken weeks to pull together (videos, graphics, ad copy, analytics reports, etc).

I kept everything in a clearly labeled shared folder because we’re supposed to have backups in case someone gets sick or quits mid project.

Anyway, the morning of the final presentation, I log in and the folder is empty.

This is the stuff of nightmares.

Totally wiped.

I panicked.

I checked the version history, the recycle bin, everything. Nothing.

A valid reason to hit the panic button.

Turns out, my coworker “Jenna” had gone into the drive late the night before and deleted the entire folder supposedly because she thought it was “old files taking up space.”

Mind you, the folder was named something like Client_X_FinalCampaignAssets_Month2025_DO_NOT_DELETE

Hmm…something sounds fishy here.

Our manager just kind of shrugged it off and said “these things happen” and “let’s focus on moving forward”.

I had to scramble and recreate everything I could from email attachments and drafts.

We lost the client.

Doesn’t sound like a huge loss, but still, not a great look.

And guess what, Jenna applied for the same internal promotion I did.

Jenna got the promotion.

I’m still salty.

All this sneakiness at a small marketing firm? Insane. Let’s see how Reddit weighed in on this one.

The comments immediately jumped to the important questions.

Another pointed out a bigger issue at hand.

One person offered a page from their own book.

Some offered simple preventative measures.

Though some had an “I Told You So” tone.

If at first you don’t succeed, create multiple backups.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a store who hired a loyal customer, but regretted it immediately.