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Colleague insists employee take the fall for their oversight, employee refuses: ‘I just refused to lie’

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  • Two employees in work attire chat with one another in the office hallway.
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  • "AITA for refusing to let my coworker use my name to cover for something I had no part in?"

    So this happened last week and I'm still going back and forth on whether I handled it right.
  • I'm 29F and I've worked at the same architecture firm for almost four years. There's a guy I'll call Marcus (34M) who works on a different team but we share a project manager.
  • We're not close, more like friendly-professional, grab coffee in the elevator type of thing. About three weeks ago Marcus apparently told our shared PM that he had "already run the revised timeline by me" and that I had signed off on it being realistic from a resources standpoint.
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  • He said this in a meeting I wasn't even in. The problem is that conversation never happened.
  • He never came to me, never emailed, never sent a slack message, nothing. The timeline he presented was genuinely not feasible and the PM greenlit it partly because she thought I had already reviewed it.
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  • When the project started slipping the PM came to me first because she assumed I was aware.
  • I had to tell her I had never seen the timeline at all. When I went to Marcus he said he had "meant to loop me in" and asked if I could just go along with it to avoid making things messy.
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  • He said it wasn't a big deal and that the timeline issue was going to get sorted out anyway.
  • I told him no. I told the PM clearly that I had not reviewed anything and that I didn't want my name attached to an approval I never gave.
  • A male employee speaks to other colleagues on his team.
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  • Marcus is now being asked to explain the discrepancy and he's been very cold to me since.
  • Two of his close friends on his team have made comments about me "escalating unnecessarily." The thing is I don't think I escalated anything.
  • I just refused to lie. But my own friend at work said I could have been more diplomatic about it and maybe talked to Marcus again before going to the PM.
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  • I dont fully disagree with her but I also feel like I was put in a position I never consented to and my professional reputation was used without my permission.
  • Was there a softer way to handle this that I missed, or was I right to just be straightforward?
  • Positive-happy-10 You did the right thing. I would let your manager know discretely some of the team have been a little funny cos you didn't cover for Marcus.
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  • OP Shoggoth_13 Appreciate it. I'm debating that, bc I don't want to look like I'm running to management over vibes. If it keeps up or affects work, I'll document it and loop my manager in.
  • bobofiddlesticks You are NTA. He's basically asking you to say you f ed up, so it doesn't look like he f ed up. Why would anyone agree to that?
  • OP Shoggoth_13 Yep, that's how it landed: "please say you approved it" so his screwup becomes mine. Nah. I'll own my work, but I'm not signing my name to his story.
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  • Plenty_Tension4689 NTA, one simple rule I live by at work is CYA. Sorry Marcus.

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