MY COWORKER SMILED WHEN I GOT DENIED THE PROMOTION, SO I CHECKED HIS LAPTOP LATER
The email subject line pulsed on my screen, confirming exactly what I was afraid of all week. My stomach dropped like a stone, and the bright screen swam before my eyes as the words blurred together. He had to know. He *had* to be behind this somehow after everything that happened last month.
When I saw him later, passing my desk, that too-sweet sympathy smile was plastered on his face. “Tough break,” he murmured, but his eyes were cold and calculating. “Some things just aren’t meant to be, I guess,” he purred, his eyes glittering with something triumphant. The air around him felt smug and heavy with his satisfaction.
Hours later, the office was a dark, empty shell, the air chilly and stale. My hands were shaking as I knelt by his desk, the faint hum of the server room the only sound. I typed the password I’d overheard him complain about last week. Access Granted. My heart hammered as I navigated folders, looking for *anything* linking him to the promotion decision. Then I saw the file, tucked away, glowing on the screen.
The file wasn’t about me at all, it was about *her*.
👇 Full story continued in the comments……The file was titled “Project Phoenix – Research Notes”. My hands trembled even more violently as I clicked it open. Inside wasn’t a dossier on the new hire or dirt on the hiring committee, but a series of screenshots, emails, and financial records. And “she”? She was Sarah, the woman who *did* get the promotion.
The documents meticulously detailed Sarah’s interactions with a major client, a client our company had been desperately trying to secure for months. They showed Sarah passing confidential strategy documents to the client’s competitor, specifically targeting Project Phoenix, a project crucial to our Q3 financials. The dates on the communications were damning, spanning the last two months – exactly the timeframe leading up to the promotion decision. My coworker, Mark, hadn’t been trying to sabotage *me*. He had been gathering evidence of corporate espionage, or at least a massive conflict of interest and breach of trust, committed by Sarah.
His “triumph” wasn’t over my failure; it was likely relief or satisfaction that Sarah wouldn’t be getting the power and access that the promotion entailed, given what he knew she was doing. His cold eyes weren’t calculating how to keep me down, but perhaps judging me for my naivete, or simply lost in the weight of the secret he was carrying. My own hurt and suspicion had blinded me.
A cold dread washed over me, replacing the anger. I had just illegally accessed my coworker’s computer based on a petty assumption, and stumbled upon something potentially explosive. This wasn’t just about a promotion anymore. This was about the integrity of the company, potentially millions in losses, and now, my own questionable actions.
I stared at the screen, the glowing text a silent accusation of my paranoia and poor judgment. What did I do now? Print it? Report it? To whom? If I went to HR or management, how would I explain how I found this? “I broke into Mark’s laptop because I thought he smiled at me funny”? My career, already bruised by the promotion denial, felt like it was teetering on the edge of a cliff. The office was still dark and silent, but now, the silence felt heavy with the weight of the secret I shared with Mark, even though he didn’t know I knew. I had the truth, but getting it might just cost me everything.