My coworker told me he was destroying the company’s project files.
We had shared a cramped, windowless office for four years. We survived endless performance reviews, complained about management, and even shared a broken stapler neither of us bothered to replace.
Last week, I found a master access keycard hidden inside his hollowed-out dictionary.
Beside it was a printed ledger showing encrypted company transactions dating back to the month I was hired.
I immediately suspected he was stealing company secrets to sell to our biggest competitor.
So I copied the ledger and prepared to report him to the internal audit team.
Before I could do that, he confronted me.
“I’m wiping the servers because management is setting you up to take the blame for the missing money,” he said. “I found evidence linking your login credentials to files you never touched. I’m trying to protect you.”
I was stunned.
I had spent four years trusting this man, yet I was convinced he had been committing corporate espionage right under my nose.
Now he was telling me he had uncovered a plan to destroy my career.
Since that conversation, things haven’t been the same.
We stopped having our usual morning coffee. During team meetings, we barely looked at each other.
But one thing kept bothering me.
The compliance director had started standing beside the glass partitions on our floor, watching our desks like he was waiting for someone to make a mistake.
Eventually, I confronted my coworker in the breakroom.
“Why is the compliance director watching us?”