My Coworker Is Obsessed With Taking Credit for My Work, So I Started Giving Her Exactly What She Wanted?
A fed-up office worker (M) got creative with a coworker, “Megan,” who repeatedly stole credit for his work. After creating a fake jargon-filled presentation called “Optimal Revenue Integration Strategy,” he left it for her to take and present.
When Megan couldn’t explain the nonsensical strategy during a meeting, her credibility plummeted, and the worker finally gained the recognition he deserved. read the original story below…
‘ My Coworker Is Obsessed With Taking Credit for My Work, So I Started Giving Her Exactly What She Wanted?’
*There’s this coworker in my office — let’s call her Megan — who’s built her whole career on taking credit for other people’s work. She’s the type who, if you so much as come up with a good idea in a team meeting, will start repeating it loudly and then take it to the boss as “her concept.”
For months, she’s been getting away with this, and since I’m not exactly confrontational, I figured I’d just keep my head down and let it go. But it was getting out of control. Megan had gone from stealing ideas to outright taking my actual work and passing it off as her own.
I’d create presentations, reports, and proposals, and somehow she’d end up presenting them to management with barely a word of credit thrown my way. My frustration hit a breaking point after our last project — I’d spent days on an analysis report, only to have her march into the boardroom and “summarize” it, taking full credit.
And the worst part? Management actually believed her. So, I decided to take a different approach. If she wanted to “steal” my work, I’d make sure it was work worth stealing. Here’s what I did:
1. I created an elaborate, jargon-filled, 25-slide presentation about a fake process I called “Optimal Revenue Integration Strategy” (or ORIS for short). It looked impressive, sounded professional, and was absolutely meaningless. Just buzzwords strung together.
2. I intentionally left the presentation open on my desktop during lunch, fully expecting her to see it. Sure enough, Megan swooped in, “borrowed” it, and set up a meeting with our boss to showcase her “latest insights.”
3. When the meeting happened, I sat quietly in the back, watching as she went through slide after slide, using words like “synergize” and “monetize” like her life depended on it. The boss’s face went from interested, to confused, to downright skeptical.
4. Finally, he asked, “Can you explain what ‘Optimal Revenue Integration Strategy’ means in practice?” Megan’s face went pale as she stumbled over the buzzwords, trying to make sense of it. But it was nonsense. She couldn’t explain it because it wasn’t *real.
The boss turned to me, knowing I’d been working on the project too, and I just shrugged, saying I had “no idea what she was trying to convey.” Megan was caught. The meeting ended abruptly, and she hasn’t been able to steal my work since.I’m now known as “the guy who actually understands the strategy” in the office, and she’s been side-eyed by everyone ever since.
Here’s the comments of Reddit users:
Mrs_Bledsoe − So she just blindly presented it to the boss without looking at it first? There’s definitely people that stupid, but this sounds fake as hell.
through3home − And then the whole office clapped.
Traditional-Agent420 − Damn, this one just feels so good, even though it sounds almost too good to be true.
wadejohn − If you’ve actually worked in an organization before where you created and presented strategies, you’d know this story is completely made up. This is something you only see in stories like Emily in Paris.
AdPrestigious839 − Ya fake
LA-forthewin − Yeah, that really happened
sesamesnapsinhalf − OP then turned the projector upside down. The content of the slide then read “Haha. You got caught stealing my work, Megan.”
The bosses were impressed and promoted OP to Vice President.
Tuna5150 − ….and everyone applauded
Rutibex − fake story. if this actually happened she would have been promoted to CEO
R2-7Star − Isn’t there a short fiction sub for this?
This ingenious revenge turned the tables on a workplace credit thief, exposing her tactics and restoring fairness. Do you think this was a clever way to handle the situation, or was it too risky? what do you think? share your thoughts below!