HR tells employee not to cover for two coworkers to avoid giving him leverage for another raise, employee maliciously complies years later when coworkers are out sick: 'Focus on my core responsibilities? You got it!'

Employees should always be careful not to take on too many responsibilities, but employers should also be careful when they restrict employees from taking on extra work. For the employee, you don't want to be known as being too good at your job. Otherwise, you might end up with more tasks and duties than you had initially bargained for without a proper pay raise or promotion. As for the employer, when you restrict your employees from taking on extra work, you might find yourself in a pickle down the road if said employee is doing a good job at protecting himself or herself in the workplace.

In this case, the author of this tale became the only person capable enough of substituting for two other coworkers if they were out sick or busy with other tasks. Of course, those other coworkers weren't able to do the reverse. Still, the employee was happy to cover for his coworkers if the company was in a pinch. Now, as several members of the online community pointed out, the employee should not feel the pressure to take that work on unless they were going to be properly compensated for that extra work. The author did manage to negotiate a well-deserved pay raise because of their capabilities, but that's when HR decided to restrict him from stepping in for these other coworkers moving forward. It seemed that they were concerned that the employee would continue to use their privileged position to their advantage during the next contract negotiation. 

Well, the day came when both of those coworkers were unable to come to work, and the employee was tasked with stepping in at the last minute. Thankfully, the employee decided to do exactly what HR requested five years ago, which was absolutely nothing.