Pexels/Reddit

Opening a work group chat on a Monday morning is supposed to bring calendar reminders and meeting updates, not a weekend’s worth of your bosses talking about you behind your back.

That’s exactly what one shocked employee found when she discovered both of her bosses had spent the weekend speaking patronizingly about her in a team chat that a colleague was also part of.

So when she responded professionally, it apparently rattled both bosses into deleting their messages.

But the damage was already done — and this employee didn’t know how to proceed.

Keep reading for the full story.

The managers forgot they were in a group chat!

We have a team group chat at work, and both of my superiors were conversing a lot over the weekend. I usually don’t check my work phone until Monday morning.

So when she checked this time, she was surprised about what she saw.

So yesterday morning, I opened the group chat just before work and found my two bosses speaking unprofessionally about me.

It was very patronising and made me feel very uncomfortable. My other colleague was also in the chat.

She handled everything the best she could, so one of the women started doing damage control.

I responded to the conversation professionally, stating that I’ve tried my best to move an event and have taken full accountability. Well, they must have panicked, because one of them messaged me separately, saying she knows I tried (ultimately trying to make herself look good).

I saw the other boss at work, and I honestly did not react. I think I was in shock that two women who have been working professionally for over 40 years thought it was appropriate to speak rudely about a team member.

Soon, the guilt got to both of them.

Later in the day, my other colleague and I were talking about the chat, and she told me it made her super uncomfortable. I opened the group chat to have another look and, shockingly, both of them had deleted their messages. If they didn’t look bad before, they do now!

Prior to these messages, I’ve been grey-rocking for a couple of weeks as I was sick of being picked on.

Now she’s at a loss about what to do next.

What do you think I should do? I feel unwanted, uncomfortable, and my self-esteem at work has decreased massively due to these women.

Is this high school or a professional workplace?

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

Maybe it’s time to cut her losses and look for another place to work.

There’s no sense staying somewhere you aren’t wanted.

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

It’s always best to keep the evidence on file.

This whole thing is an HR complaint waiting to be filed.

Deleting messages after getting caught doesn’t magically erase what happened, it just proves both bosses knew exactly how bad it looked the moment someone called it out.

Needless to say, two people with decades of professional experience should know better than to speak this way about an employee without even bothering to check who was on the group thread.

The ball is in this employee’s court now.

Add TwistedSifter to your Google News Add us as a preferred source on Google

Author

Benjamin Cottrell

Benjamin Cottrell | Assistant Editor, Internet Culture

Benjamin Cottrell is an Assistant Editor and contributing writer at TwistedSifter, specializing in internet culture, viral social dynamics, and the moral complexities of online communities. He brings a highly analytical, editorial voice to his reporting on workplace conflicts, malicious compliance, and interpersonal drama, with a specific focus on nuanced stories that lack an obvious villain.

As a published author of rhetorical criticism, Benjamin leverages his academic background in human communication to dissect and elevate viral social media threads. Instead of simply summarizing events, he provides readers with balanced, deep-dive commentary into why the internet reacts the way it does. In addition to his cultural reporting, he is an experienced fine art photography essayist and video game reviewer.

When he isn’t analyzing the latest viral debates, Benjamin is usually chipping away at his extensive video game backlog, hunting down the best new restaurants, or out exploring the city with a camera in hand.

Connect with Benjamin on Instagram and read more of his essays on Substack.