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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Cheating at work and management reaction

97 replies

ApollO88 · 26/01/2016 15:55

Sorry if this gets long winded

So today I find next to the work printer a photocopy of an exam that I sat for an internal training course at work. It's got the handwriting of a colleague all over it with notes and answers from different pages made on it. It looks as though she has been copying my work. I take the document to my manager who brushes it aside and compares us to his teenage daughters squabbling over the make up mirror in the bathroom.

Aibu to report him for his reaction and my colleague for her cheating?!

I am right royally pissed off with the cheating. I have worked hard in my training courses and not only is she stupid enough to cheat but she's stupid enough to leave the evidence laying around!

And I cannot believe my managers reaction to what should be treated very seriously! It's professional cheating! I have never had an issue with this colleague before so compare us to squabbling teenagers is just ridiculous!

OP posts:

JohnLuther · 26/01/2016 17:23

I'm another one that's at twitter's posts.

PuppyMonkey · 26/01/2016 17:23

Yes go up to her and ask her if she found your notes useful. But also report it to the exam people.

I'm dying to know what sort of test this was now by the way.

DoreenLethal · 26/01/2016 17:33

I think twitterqueen has been at the photocopier ink.

Twitterqueen · 26/01/2016 17:34

I'm bored now...
Let me repeat.

We do not know whether the colleage was cheating or not
The OP did not bother to find out
The OP has not asked the colleague for more information or what happened
the OP went up to her manager and clearly behaved in an unprofessional way, or he/she would not have the made the comment they did.
the OP threatens to report the manager
The OP does not bother to ask the manager why they're not taking it seriously
We don't know what the exam / qualification was or is.

I'm not saying the colleague didn't cheat
I'm not saying the manager was right to dismiss the allegation

What I am saying, and I've said before, is that the OP has not handled this professionally or well.

ImperialBlether · 26/01/2016 17:40

I think if someone goes into your private files and takes out a completed exam paper, photocopies it and makes extra notes on it prior to them taking the test themselves, it's pretty obvious they're cheating.

RainOhJoyus · 26/01/2016 17:43

OP I would have reacted the same with you and let the exam company know if I had that reaction as well. I would worry the manager was helping her cheat on there exams with the response.

twitter just

Twitterqueen · 26/01/2016 17:47

If the OP had followed my earlier advice, she would have been able to get some more facts or at least a clearer indication about what happened.

THEN she could have gone to her manager and said something like "I'd like to talk to you about something that happened today. I saw what looked like my exam notes on the photocopier and I don't understand quite why. I asked colleague XY about it but she couldn't really answer my questions satisfactorily. I don't like to say this but I do suspect that perhaps she has taken my own paper dishonestly and is copying my answers. I'd appreciate your guidance here on what to do next."

THAT is what's known as professionalism.

Stillunexpected · 26/01/2016 17:48

Twitterqueen, are you her colleague?

mintoil · 26/01/2016 17:49

I am at some of the bizarre responses you have had OP.

Of course this is unacceptable cheating - I would be furious.

However, I do think that either your employer or the external company managing this should have insisted that if exams were being taken on consecutive days, completed and marked papers should be stored securely, and not left lying around where any cheating bastard could get their mitts on them.

I would escalate if this isn't resolved.

BumWad · 26/01/2016 17:49

😴

(That's for Twitterqueen)

ScrambledSmegs · 26/01/2016 17:56

This.

Imustgodowntotheseaagain · 26/01/2016 17:58

Many managers love to dismiss issues between female colleagues as nothing but catfights, because it absolves them of the need to do anything about it.

If twitterqueen hasn't endured one of these, she's either very lucky or a man.

TrinityForce · 26/01/2016 18:00

OP's handled this fine.

It sounds like the internal training person is handling it. Managers reaction was a bit off, I agree.

GruntledOne · 26/01/2016 18:00

We do not know whether the colleage was cheating or not
The OP did not bother to find out

OP found a copy of her own paper, which no-one else was meant to see, in the photocopier with colleague's handwriting on it. It was a copy of an exam which colleague was going to take the next day. The fact that colleague had seen it and had clearly gone through it carefully making her own notes meant that colleague had the advantage of prior warning of the exam questions and reading OP's answers.

Could you please tell us, Twitterqueen, what the explanation of that was likely to be if it wasn't cheating?

GruntledOne · 26/01/2016 18:03

And it would not be "professionalism" for OP to try to handle this clearly serious incident by investigating it for herself. It would have given colleague prior warning of the fact that the shit was about to hit the fan and try to prepare a defence, quite possibly along the lines that OP was trying to set her up. Realistically what OP did was the only sensible response.

MrsEricBana · 26/01/2016 18:25

YADNBU. Further, of course they haven't given her the paper you sat two days ago with your name, signature and answers all over to use as a past paper - that would be a breach of your privacy. If they were giving her a different test tomorrow they might have given them blank copies of the test you sat to have a go at but not your completed paper. I'd speak to the external examiners asap.

PuppyMonkey · 26/01/2016 18:25

Nah I think she just wanted to decorate the wall with the exam papers or something, couldn't be copying.

lorelei9 · 26/01/2016 18:36

OP I think you did the right thing
Approaching the colleague would look like an accusation

I haven't encountered a manager who thinks a dispute can be avoided just because those involved are women but I have encountered plenty who will just avoid contentious issues.

I don't see there's much more you can do except see what the course provider says.

Redcherries · 26/01/2016 18:39

I think it's cheating and should be treated as such.

However I don't understand why notes would have been written on the photo copy when it is still at the copy machine. Surely you would photo copy, remove both sets, then replace stolen paper and sit down privately to make notes etc? Not put the stolen paper back then return the cheat copy with notes to the machine, or return to the machine to make notes? I'm confused by this aspect.

Original poster

ApollO88 · 26/01/2016 18:59

im worried by that aspect redcherries. if she had made notes on my paper then returned it to the copier, how many other people could she have given it to?!

OP posts:

lorelei9 · 26/01/2016 19:18

I have a friend on a course involving a set of exams. She did brilliantly in the first batch and was asked by colleagues if she would "lend" them her notes. She said she'd think about it, asked me and I said "why the fuck do they get your study notes that you researched etc, tell them to either fuck off, or charge them if they want them, it's effectively you tutoring them for free".

She said no and was greeted by whines of how unfair it is. I don't know what goes on in some people's heads.

But to that end, I too would wonder where else the notes have gone.

Jux · 26/01/2016 22:12

The company will be able to tell that you took the test before her as a) they'll have records of who took what test when, and b) they scan them in when they're done so you take your paper away with you.

When they scan them and give them back to you, have they already been marked? Otherwise how does your colleague know that the answers she's copying are right? How do you know?

If they're marked, then she has a very unfair advantage.

Mind you, I can't imagine why anyone would leave their answers lying about for anyone to look at.

amarmai · 26/01/2016 23:04

makes sense that some pps will not agree with you op, because a substantial % of people do cheat and think it's smart to do so.

Brightnorthernlights · 26/01/2016 23:15

But the OP didn't leave them lying around, they were filed in a notebook above her desk, with the coursework. I don't see this as 'lying around'.

chocorabbit · 27/01/2016 11:48

The OP is worried that she could be accused of AIDING her colleague to cheat. She couldn't have possibly copied fro the OP unless the OP gave her her exam So they would disqualify both.

OP, you did the right thing. Your manager clearly favours her.

My husband had the software which he largely wrote by himself (but was meant to be "teamwork") "stolen" by a colleague who could never explain the code to save his life. He only added comments and changed variables etc to try to disguise it but it was still obvious. In fact when the system starts up it says that the code is "Property of

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