Frustrated Employee Outsmarts Colleague Who 'Forgets' to CC Boss in Emails
- - - Frustrated Employee Outsmarts Colleague Who 'Forgets' to CC Boss in Emails
Tereza ShkurtajJune 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
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One employee became frustrated after noticing a co-worker was conveniently forgetting to CC their boss in emails
By doing so, the co-worker was making it seem like he was doing a majority of the work, when in reality, this wasn't the case
The employee found a professional way to expose his co-worker to their boss
Workplace dynamics can often be complicated, especially when credit for hard work is quietly redirected onto someone else.
One frustrated employee found a tactful, professional way to expose a co-worker's subtle manipulation – and it worked better than expected.
The story centers around a man named "Matt," a colleague notorious for conveniently forgetting to CC their boss on important email updates. At first glance, it seemed harmless enough. But according to one Reddit user, Matt's forgetfulness wasn't just random oversight - it was a pattern.
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"Any time we worked on a shared task, he'd conveniently forget to CC our boss on emails or would send updates in private threads that made him look like he was carrying the whole project," the user explained in the since-deleted post.
By limiting the visibility of team communications, Matt consistently positioned himself as the star of the show. Meanwhile, the contributions of others, particularly the poster, were getting buried or ignored.
"It got frustrating because I'd do half (sometimes more) of the work, and he'd make it look like he saved the day," the employee wrote.
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Attempts to address the issue directly with Matt were met with casual deflection. "I brought it up a few times, but he brushed it off like, 'Oh man, my bad, just forgot,'" the poster recounted. But this wasn't just a one-off mistake, as it was happening too consistently to be accidental.
Rather than escalating the situation or creating drama, the employee took a different approach and decided to beat Matt at his own game. "I started sending weekly status updates to our boss summarizing what [we] completed, always CC'ing Matt. Just facts. No drama," the Reddit user wrote.
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This simple, clear shift in communication started to highlight the reality of who was contributing what. Over time, the contrast became obvious, even to leadership. "Eventually, our boss asked in a meeting why Matt never him and why it looked like I was the only one delivering."
Caught off guard, Matt struggled to explain. "Matt stammered and tried to play it off, but the pattern was clear." That single moment was enough to flip the script.
From then on, Matt "started CC'ing everyone on everything, almost too much, honestly," the user noted.
Although there were no fireworks or grand acknowledgments, the poster said it "still felt like a quiet victory."
on People
Source: AOL Lifestyle
