I still don’t know if I should feel guilty. I started a new job about three months ago. One of my coworkers was everyone’s favorite. Super helpful, always smiling, remembered everyone’s birthday, even brought snacks for the office. I honestly thought they were one of the nicest people I’d ever met. Last week we were assigned to work on the same project. While organizing some shared files, I noticed a folder with multiple versions of documents they had claimed to create alone. The edit history showed several coworkers—including people they constantly criticized—had actually done most of the work. I didn’t think much of it until our manager praised them during a meeting for “always carrying the team.” Without thinking, I said, “Didn’t everyone contribute to that project?” The room went completely silent. The manager opened the file history on the projector. It was obvious I was right. Now everyone is looking at my coworker differently. They haven’t spoken to me since, and some p...
A couple of years ago my family agreed to keep birthdays and Christmas pretty simple because money was getting tight for everyone. Nobody complained because we all understood but it definitely changed the feeling around holidays. Instead of trying to surprise each other with something special we mostly bought practical gifts or small things people actually needed. It made sense but it felt like the excitement disappeared. Last Christmas my dad mentioned that he had wanted a PS5 but could never bring himself to spend that much on one. The reason being why my dad wanted is because me growing up we used to play together all the time and we had to eventually give our PS3 away. He laughed it off and changed the subject but I could tell he meant it. He works hard and almost never buys anything for himself so that comment stayed in my head. I spent the next few weeks looking everywhere for a decent deal. I checked Facebook Marketplace almost every day but the prices were still high and some ...