The corporate world can get monotonous at times, so companies try to make things a little lighter for their employees and come up with rewarding competitions. Since it’s just a small work competition, nobody would be petty enough to cheat, right?

Wrong! The original poster’s (OP) colleague clearly cheated by faking 65,000 steps per day in the company walking competition. Apparently, she is counting bike riding, stretching, yoga, and even washing dishes as “steps”. Well, obviously, she got reported for this fraud, but then she lashed out against OP for complaining about her!  

More info: Reddit

There are a few petty folks out there who don’t even hesitate while cheating, even in the smallest of competitions

Image credits: Stockbusters / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The poster’s company announced a walking competition where employees with over 5000 steps will get half day off on Friday, and the winner will get an Apple watch

Image credits: GalaxyGarlic

Image credits: Sabina / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

The poster and their coworkers, Dave and Jenna, started a healthy competition due to similar steps, but Tiffany suddenly posted 65,000 steps

Image credits: GalaxyGarlic

Image credits: musefoto / Freepik (not the actual photo)

She plays volleyball, so there was a chart that converts other activities into steps, and Tiffany is using it

Image credits: GalaxyGarlic

Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Looking at her big number, the poster spoke with Tiffany and found out that she is calculating bike riding, stretching, yoga, and washing dishes as “steps”

Image credits: GalaxyGarlic

Image credits: Wavebreak Media / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The poster consulted the competition manager, Matt, who pointed out that these things cannot be considered as steps and that what Tiffany is doing is wrong

Image credits: GalaxyGarlic

This didn’t go down well with Tiffany, who lashed out against the poster for complaining about her

In today’s story, we will travel to the workplace of Reddit user GalaxyGarlic where there’s a walking competition happening that’s the cause of all drama. What happened was that once the announcement about this competition was made, OP was quite happy as they are eager to get back into fitness and got 20,000 steps daily.

Plus, the employee who got over 5,000 steps daily will get half a day off on Friday, and the overall winner will get an Apple watch! The poster slowly got into a healthy competition with coworkers Dave and Jenna, who also have a similar step count compared to OP. However, one day, another coworker, Tiffany, who generally has 10,000-15,000 steps daily, suddenly noted 65,000 steps, which shocked the poster. 

The thing is, Tiffany plays volleyball, so the competition manager, Matt, has given a chart that converts other activities into steps. Upon further discussion with her, OP found out that she counted bike riding, stretching, yoga, and even washing dishes as “steps”. Of course, that didn’t sound right to our poster, so they spoke to Matt about it, who did say that it was wrong.

Well, OP told Matt to remind Tiffany about it, which he did, but she didn’t take it well. Tiffany lashed out against the poster for complaining about her, so probably feeling guilty, the poster vented online and sought advice. Later, they also gave an update that nothing was done about Tiffany’s fraudulent step count, and she ended up winning the competition.

Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

To get more insights into the topic, Bored Panda reached out to HR specialist Nicola Dias, who claimed that the competition itself sounded quite unfair to her. She felt that they could’ve made it more inclusive for all employees so that the ones who lacked certain things would not resort to cheating in order to win.

She suggested an alternative: “Instead of having one individual winner, divide participants into teams and set collective goals. This encourages teamwork, reduces hyper-competitiveness, and levels the playing field. Offer small incentives for participation, consistency, or improvement rather than only rewarding the highest performer.”

The fact that Tiffany still won the competition shows that the company handled the situation quite unfairly when there were other employees who were putting in so much effort. Our expert also agreed that the competition should have had transparent, well-communicated rules that outlined what counts as activity. 

“They should have encouraged Tiffany to stay engaged by setting new, rule-compliant goals that still allow her to feel accomplished. At the same time, they should’ve also reminded the team of the overall purpose of the challenge—improving physical activity and boosting team morale,” Nicola explained.

Lastly, she also stated that the whole purpose of these activities is to alert employees about fitness, but the whole purpose gets lost when companies don’t carry out the competition properly. Well, that does make sense, doesn’t it? How would you have handled the situation if you were in the poster’s shoes? Let us know in the comments!

While many folks found Tiffany at fault, some also chastised the poster for taking an office competition too seriously

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