Here’s a more natural, fully reworked version that keeps the same situation and tone while sounding authentic:
I’ve been debating whether I handled this situation badly or not, because now everything’s escalating at work and I feel guilty about it.
Earlier this year, my usual manager went on maternity leave, so a temporary manager — I’ll call her Rachel — stepped into the role. Our team is tiny, literally just the two of us managing a handful of long-term projects together, so we work pretty closely.
In the beginning, things actually seemed promising. Rachel came across super organised and confident, and I thought the transition would be smooth. But after a while, I realised almost every interaction somehow became about her personal life.
Any time we were in the office together, she’d pull me into these conversations that could easily last over an hour. I’d try every polite escape method possible — turning back to my computer, mentioning deadlines, giving the “hopefully everything works out” response — but she’d just continue talking like I hadn’t said anything.
It wasn’t only with me either. If anyone in the office brought up literally any topic, she’d somehow loop it back to a story about herself. A quick five-minute chat in the kitchen would suddenly become a twenty-minute monologue about her relationships, family drama, finances, or something else happening in her life.
At first she’d offer to buy me coffee all the time, which seemed nice. Eventually I realised those coffee runs basically came with an unspoken requirement that I sit there listening to her vent for ages afterward. I actually started bringing coffee from home just so I’d have an excuse to say no.
Once I started keeping more distance and focusing on work, she began wandering off to chat with other coworkers instead. Some office days she’d disappear from her desk for hours while I was left handling project updates, emails, client follow-ups, and deadlines on my own.
The weirdest part was that despite technically being my manager, she’d constantly ask me what needed to be done next. I’d end up explaining project statuses, timelines, and priorities to her — which felt backwards considering she was supposed to be overseeing everything.
After a few months of this, I brought it up privately with my director. I didn’t go in trying to get her in trouble. I just explained that it felt like I was carrying most of the workload and informally managing the projects myself without the title or authority.
Around the same time, she also found out that her old position — the one she was expected to return to after this temporary assignment — had been eliminated, and now she has to apply internally for another role. I honestly do feel bad for her because that’s a rough situation for anyone.
But at the same time, the workload imbalance became impossible to ignore. If someone asked her for a proper update on our projects tomorrow, I genuinely don’t think she’d know where half of them currently stand.
Apparently my director had already started noticing the same things independently. On one office day, she specifically paid attention to how often Rachel was away from her desk and how much work was actually getting done. Now HR has been consulted for advice on how to address it professionally.
And now I feel conflicted, because technically I was the one who first raised concerns… so part of me feels like I “snitched.” But the other part of me knows I was burning out trying to carry everything alone while pretending everything was fine.
