Woman Wanting Coworker Fired For Telling 'Lies' About Personal Life Blasted

A woman wanting her colleague to be fired for telling "lies" is being slammed online.

Posting to Mumsnet's Am I Being Unreasonable? (AIBU) forum on 13 September, user YellowDove was berated by commenters for complaining to human resources, after she discovered the coworker had been lying about her personal life.

However, HR refused to proceed with the complaint, telling the poster it's "not a work issue."

Little White Lies

A 2021 study indicated that most people try to be honest. Over a 91-day period, the 632 participants told 116,366 lies, self-reporting their tall tales in an online survey.

Some 75 percent claimed to lie between zero and two times a day, with 90 percent falling into the "little white lie" category.

Six percent said they lie more frequently than the average person, but referred to these as "bad lie days," where they twisted the truth more often than usual.

Researchers discovered that the rate of lying can change day by day, particularly for "prolific liars," with the top one percent lying 17 times a day on average.

According to SimplyHired, the top workplace lies are "I don't feel well" and "I have plans after work."

Surveying over 1,000 full-time salaried employees, 60 percent admitted to faking an illness at work or lying about plans in the evening. Other common lies included "There was traffic on the way in" (48 percent), "I'm working on it right now" (47 percent), and "I can't come in because I have an appointment" (46 percent).

When asked how "harmless" each lie is, 72 percent had an issue with coworkers faking sick, while 77 percent were unimpressed by people lying about appointments.

Some 76 percent of respondents found it problematic to lie about how a project is progressing, but people were softer about traffic troubles (38 percent said it was harmless) and making up after-work plans (54 percent).

'Not Your Business'

In her post, YellowDove asked Mumsnet users if it was "unreasonable" of her to expect a coworker to be fired over lies about her personal life.

"Colleague in work seems to lie a lot about her home/family life that are easily proven to be untrue," she wrote.

"However, she is really good at her job and has never lied about a work related issue (as far as we know).

"My point is how can we trust her if she lies about such pointless stuff in such a compulsive way?! HR seems to be saying [that] as it isn't a work issue, there's nothing we can do. But how is it not a work issue?"

Unfortunately for YellowDove, Mumsnet users agreed with HR, with Andromachehadabadday for one telling the poster that it's "not her business."

"She can insist she lives with unicorns and fairies," she commented. "It doesn't impact her work, so keep out of it."

StopStartStop agreed, writing: "Perhaps she doesn't want to share her life with her colleagues and would rather make things up."

"Why are you so keen to get her sacked?" asked Proteinpudding. "What grounds do you think they would have to sack her exactly, that she might do something wrong?"

In the comments, YellowDove added more information about the lies her coworker is allegedly telling.

"She tells stories about her four-year-old twin daughters, when she has one 4-year-old son," she added.

"Lying about being in a same sex marriage when she is married to a man. Not small lies. Not things that are easily explained away."

When asked how she knows the coworker is lying, she explained that her aunt is the coworker's childminder and is paid to care for her kids. The poster said her colleague's role involves handling data, which is why she is so concerned about the possible lies.

However, after discovering the aunt's job, users warned she could be breaching her colleague's privacy by sharing details of her personal life.

"If your aunt is her childminder would it not be a safeguarding issue [if you discuss] her kids?" asked heartbroken22.

"The work issue here is your aunt, the Childminder, breaching confidentiality by disclosing things to you about her client," said dailsdrippingclock.

"I'd be more concerned working with a busybody who sticks their nose in other peoples business," wrote HangOnToYourself.

While namechange30455 commented: "There's only one person that should be sacked here and it's not your colleague."

Newsweek wasn't able to verify the details of this case.