Woman faked food poisoning to skip work — then her manager's polite comment on her brunch post made her instantly regret it
It's no surprise that employees try to take time off by faking illness. But if they're caught red-handed, things can get a little complicated. A Reddit user who goes by the username u/justlunatits shared a relatable incident involving a coworker on May 28, 2025. What made it even more amusing was that the coworker herself unwittingly played a role in exposing her false illness. When her manager learned about this, they decided to leave a funny comment under her brunch post. It certainly made her regret her actions.
Coworker tried to fake food poisoning to get out of work… forgot she posted brunch pics on Instagram.
by u/justlunatits in coworkerstories
The post describes what unfolded in a humorous way. It began on a Monday morning after the weekend, when their coworker Tina called in sick. She explained her situation as she couldn’t stand up without feeling dizzy due to something bad she had eaten earlier. The call ended on a note of well wishes for her recovery. But just a few hours later, a team member scrolling through Instagram saw her post, which was uploaded that same morning. It was “a full photo dump from a bottomless mimosa brunch,” as the user described. When the manager saw it, they couldn’t resist commenting, “Glad you’re feeling better.”
The brunch post was enough to raise doubts about whether Tina truly had food poisoning from “some bad sushi.” What made it worse were the captions and another video in which she could be seen “literally cheering” with her friends in the background. While uploading all this after faking her illness the same morning, she probably forgot that her colleagues were also connected to her social media account. Once exposed, she could have faced consequences ranging from minor to severe.
However, her manager's polite comment may have given her some relief because the next day she went to the office as if nothing had happened, as per the post. “HR had a chat with her,” the post said. But she definitely learned a lesson from this whole incident, because after that, she “kept her account on private.” The user added that her “sickness” still occurs, just after 5 p.m. now. The post drew a wave of interesting reactions from fellow Reddit users. u/LeaningFaithward advised, “Never have coworkers on your socials. Block them on day one.” If she had no work contacts on social media, she certainly wouldn't have been exposed.
Another user, u/Presitigous_Sell799, shared their own experience and wrote, “Every time I used to fake sick to get out of school, I always ended up feeling sick.” One of the users even suggested how she could have gotten away with it after being exposed. “She’s dumb. I would have just said I was posting old photos because I was sick in bed. Easy fix,” mentioned u/Super-Pressure9794. While it will always be a case of “what ifs” and how she could have avoided being exposed, one thing is certain—she regretted it and may feel awkward asking for sick leave, even when genuinely ill, for the rest of her time at the organization.