Gossipy coworker keeps track of colleague’s time off, complains to others about their approved absences, and invents his own hardships for sympathy: ‘That family situation he referenced didn’t exist’

The workplace is known as the glittering utopia where everyone minds their own business, supports each other's life struggles, and definitely never invents grievances with people they barely know. 

But this one coworker decided to change that. This is the type who barely knows your last name but has somehow made tracking your sick days their personal side hustle. This self-appointed guardian of attendance monitors your time off with the intensity of a customs officer at JFK. And while their colleague is managing real-life turmoil—actual family crises, legal headaches, the kind of stuff that makes Google Calendar weep—and still, managing to keep everything by the book, their supervisor on board and their conscience clear.

But the coworker, who rarely minds their own business or their actual job at hand. Instead, they're the kind of workplace theater kids desperately seeking a main character moment. Checking who gets sympathy, who takes leave, and who dares to show the faintest sign of vulnerability. 

The rumor mill turns, loyalty is measured by attendance, and empathy is replaced with quiet grumbling about fairness

And for their main act, the big moment that'll get them the leading role, they decide that falsifying their own sob story for that extra dash of martyrdom will do the work. because who doesn't love a sympathy arms race in the break room?