Employee backs out of their promise to cover coworker's shift after she also demands they take over all of her extra tasks of the day, gets called out: ‘Coworkers should help each other’

Have you ever regretted agreeing to do a favor for someone, as you slowly realized that the favor demands a lot more work than what you initially expected?

Favors are a tricky thing. When someone needs a favor from other people, they can say anything to convince them to agree to it. There are plenty of people who have no problem at all lying their way to getting others to agree to doing them a favor. And they often succeed. The question is, if you are on the other side, and you just agreed to do a favor you have no idea the scope of, how do you react once you find out exactly what you signed up for?

Take the employee in the story below as an example. The initial "casual favor" they were asked was to cover a few hours of a coworker's shift. Only a few hours, and she would return the favor. As it seemed like an easy enough favor, the employee agreed, but she had no idea what she had just signed up for.

A few days before said shift, the coworker suddenly informed the employee that instead of just a few hours, she's going to have to cover the entire shift. Again, the employee agreed, thinking the favor could not possibly grow any further. Then, the night before, the coworker decides to ask the employee to not only cover the shift, but also to take over any extra tasks that may be needed. That was when the employee realised this favor had become something she refuses to deal with.

Instead of letting the snowball grow any longer, the employee decided to tell the coworker that she would rather not cover their shift at all than to be forced to do things she never agreed to do. This drawing of a line was not appreciated by the coworker, who claimed it would be selfish to refuse to do the favor altogether.

Who is in the right? Should the employee accept her fate and do the favor as agreed, or should she stand up for herself and refuse to let the coworker take advantage of her initial kindness? Keep scrolling to read the full story to decide.