A coworker story—feel free to share your opinions.

Let’s talk about this:

Hello. I’ve been working at a nonprofit organization for 1 year as an administrative staff member. There is already one clerk in this workplace, and they assigned me to “help” the existing clerk. Throughout the time I’ve been working here, I’ve ended up doing almost everything. The original clerk constantly dumps work on me. What do you think? Please comment.

1. Our organization’s working hours are 08:30–17:00. Every workplace has start and end times, right? But!!! The original clerk comes in whenever she wants and leaves whenever she wants (takes a half-day leave but shows up at 2:00 PM—what kind of half-day is that?) She comes late and still leaves earlier than me. She says, “This is a nonprofit organization, not a shop—what standards are you using to judge that I’m late?”

Note: We have a fingerprint scanner at work, and employees must report leave/errands in the LINE group.

2. She takes leave very often—almost every week of every month. I only get one day off per week. I can’t even take a day off when I’m sick because I’m afraid people will criticize me for taking leave too often. But!!! For her, for example, if she takes leave today, tomorrow she’ll take an additional day off, and then there’s her regular scheduled day off as well.

3. Recently she has been taking leave, claiming she’s going back home to take care of her sick father—traveling from the city to the countryside. But someone saw that she didn’t actually go. Sometimes she claims she went to see her father yesterday, and then she shows up at work in the morning (even though she doesn’t have her own car and doesn’t really have much money). I’d like your opinions: Is it even possible to travel there and back within 1 day?

4. I’d like everyone’s opinions, please. Last Friday and Saturday, she didn’t come to work. On Saturday at around 9 PM, she posted in the group LINE that her father passed away and requested leave from work, but she didn’t say how many days she would be absent or when she would return. This Tuesday will be my day off, and I’ll be the only one left to cover her duties. If I want to rest too, should I take my day off? Would that be selfish?

In this organization, there are multiple bosses and a supervisor, but they can’t scold her or do anything to her. Even when she used a coworker’s social security money for a whole year, the coworker forgave her. There are many other issues too, yet they still keep this person employed.

Here’s how I see it:

Okay—let’s talk about this like we’re sitting together after work. No flattery, no sugarcoating. I’m going to help organize your thinking clearly, because what’s exhausting you the most right now isn’t just the workload…it’s the feeling of “How does someone like this survive in the system?” while the person who actually works gets stuck carrying everything.

Let me start with a scene I’m pretty sure you know too well.

Monday morning, 08:25. You walk into the office. Your phone still has notifications about unfinished tasks from last night. You didn’t even have time for breakfast.
You scan your fingerprint, turn on the lights, arrange documents, check the LINE group…silence.
That clerk’s desk…empty again.

08:50. You start answering calls, receiving documents, fixing small problems.
10:30. You start doing her tasks because they have to be completed.
12:00. You eat quickly because there’s still work left.
14:00. She appears casually, with a legendary line:

“This is a nonprofit organization, not a shop. What standard are you using to judge that I’m late?”

And you sit there quiet, because if you speak up, you worry people will label you as “too much.”
You go home in the evening—your body feels like a dead battery, but your brain keeps looping the same questions:

Why can she do this?

Why does nobody manage it?

How much longer do I have to tolerate this?

If I take a break too, will I be the one who’s wrong?

Let me say this upfront, clearly:

You are not overthinking.
This is a system-level problem + behavior-level problem that can absolutely burn out people who genuinely work.
And what you’re dealing with isn’t rare in nonprofits / multi-boss environments / places with unclear management—because there are leadership gaps that allow certain people to glide through life.

But…I also need to reality-check you like a friend who actually wants you to be okay, because I see the trap that good, capable workers often fall into:

You keep taking over until it becomes “proof” that the organization can survive without fixing the problem.
And the better you carry, the less anyone above you feels pressured to manage.

That’s not me blaming you.
That’s me pointing out: If you want the system to change, you have to change how you play the game. Otherwise you’ll keep getting exhausted for free and hurt for free.

From here, I’ll respond point-by-point to what you shared, then I’ll summarize it into a practical action plan—with real scripts you can use with supervisors/bosses/team members. And I’ll answer your biggest question:

“Should I take Tuesday off, or am I being selfish?”

1) Start/end time: “This isn’t a shop” is not a license to have zero discipline

You said the organization has 08:30–17:00 hours, a fingerprint scanner, and a requirement to report leave/errands in the LINE group.

So yes—the system exists. The problem is: enforcement doesn’t.

Her line—“This isn’t a shop”—sounds cool, but it’s actually just an excuse.
Whether an organization is for-profit or nonprofit, working together requires minimum standards for fairness and continuity.

In the working world, minimum standards are three things:

showing up within agreed hours
communicating when you can’t
taking responsibility for the impact on the team when you don’t

If anything, nonprofits need discipline even more—because resources are limited, staffing is limited, and a small backlog can collapse the whole workflow.

So the conclusion for this section is:
She’s wrong for disrespecting time rules, management is wrong for allowing it—
but you can’t solve it emotionally. You solve it with evidence + proper channels.

2) Frequent leave: You can take leave, but you can’t sink the team—and rules must be equal

You said she takes leave almost every week, sometimes adds another day the next day, then stacks it with her regular day off.
Meanwhile, you only get one day off per week, and you’re afraid to take sick leave because you fear criticism.

That’s clear inequality at two levels:

Level 1: She uses leave with zero accountability (and no one controls it).
Level 2: You don’t use your rights because you’re scared—even though you work harder.

I’m going to say this bluntly as a friend:

Not taking sick leave doesn’t only make you look hardworking. It makes you look like someone the system can pressure.
And certain types of people will dump more on the person who never refuses.

What you need to do is separate responsibility from self-destruction.

Responsibility = do your job well, communicate well, hand over work systematically

Self-destruction = doing everyone’s job until your health breaks and the system never learns

A healthy organization should allow people to rest without the whole system collapsing.
If everything collapses every time one person takes leave, then the staffing/management system is broken—not the employee who needs rest.

3) “Going home to care for a sick father” but people saw she didn’t: You can suspect, but be careful about direct accusations

You asked whether one-day round-trip travel is possible from the city to the countryside, especially when she has no personal car and not much money.

A fair answer is:

If it’s a nearby province from Bangkok (Ayutthaya / Suphan Buri / Nakhon Pathom / Chachoengsao), same-day travel is possible.

If it’s far (deep North / far Northeast / deep South), same-day travel is hard—not impossible 100%, but unlikely unless using faster transport (which costs money, and you said she doesn’t have much).

But the core point isn’t whether she’s lying at 200%.

The core point is:

Even if she is lying, the people with authority to verify and discipline are management, not you.

And if you accuse her directly—“You’re lying”—the game flips instantly.
It stops being about work discipline and becomes about defamation / gossip / bullying—and you lose credibility.

So what I recommend:

Treat it as a pattern of facts, not a weapon.

The smart move is: don’t play detective—play process owner.

If someone takes leave:

require a leave message/record according to the rules
require the number of days
require a clear handover
require a list of pending tasks

You do this for the system, not to “catch her.”
But the result is: people who operate on chaos will have less room to hide.

4) The latest case: 9 PM message “my father passed away,” requests leave, no duration—and Tuesday is your day off. Should you take your day off?

This is the key moment, because this is where you either set a boundary or let the system eat you again.

Here’s the clear answer:

Yes—you should take your day off. And no—you are not selfish.

But you must take it professionally, not like throwing a grenade into the team.

Why?

You have a scheduled day off by right.

Her leave announcement without duration is her/management’s lack of structure, not your personal burden.

If you cover every time she disappears, the organization learns: “No need to manage her—this person will carry.”

If you never rest, you will burn out faster—and eventually the person who will be absent long-term might be you.

But there is one crucial condition:

Before you take your day off, you must send a professional advance signal and request a staffing plan so leadership can’t pretend they didn’t know.

Here’s a script you can use in the LINE group or directly to your supervisor (adjust names as needed):

“Dear Supervisor/Everyone, Tuesday is my scheduled day off (as previously planned / as my regular day off), so I will be off as planned.
Since Ms. ___ (clerk) has requested leave but hasn’t specified the number of days or a handover plan, could you please confirm the work plan / who will cover the duties on Tuesday so critical tasks won’t be disrupted?
I’m happy to summarize pending tasks and document status before my day off.”

Why this works:

no insults, no sarcasm

clearly states your right to rest

correctly pushes management responsibility back to management

shows cooperation by offering a status summary

frames it as a system issue, not a personal attack

If your supervisor replies, “Then you come cover,” you can respond calmly but firmly:

“I understand, but Tuesday is my planned day off, and I’ve been covering continuously for quite some time.
If coverage is required, I’d appreciate it if we could rotate coverage / assign another person as well so the workflow doesn’t rely on just one person.”

This is the moment you will find out whether the organization respects real workers—or simply consumes them.

And about the “father passed away” issue?

Here’s how to be both humane and intelligent:

If her father truly passed away, that is tragic, and she should get time to handle the funeral.
But grief does not erase the need for basic workplace communication, and it does not justify sinking the team without handover.

What the organization should do:

allow her leave

require a clear timeframe

require handover

provide backup coverage

What should not happen:

one person carries everything and people call it “sacrifice.”

5) The bigger issue: management and the system are the real root

You said:

multiple bosses and a supervisor exist

but nobody can scold her or do anything

she once used a coworker’s social security money for a year and was forgiven

and there are many other incidents, yet she’s still employed

I’m going to say this plainly:

If she survived even a social-security-money scandal, there is likely a culture of enabling or some kind of protection network in that organization.

And if that’s true, you probably can’t “win” through righteousness alone.
But you can still protect yourself by playing smarter.

Don’t expect instant justice for her.
Expect at least: the workload stops landing only on you, and you don’t break.

So your short-term goals should be:

reduce dumped work

put everything in writing

make leaders see the real workload weekly

protect yourself from being blamed later

plan your mid-term exit if the system doesn’t change

6) A professional action plan that forces accountability without shouting

I’ll break this into 4 simple phases:

Phase A: Evidence—without “spying”

Keep a work log for 2–4 weeks. Record facts only:

date/time

task received (from whom)

tasks that are clerk duties but you did (name the items)

tasks delayed due to absence

extra coverage work (calls, fixes, urgent issues)

Don’t write “she’s lazy.”
Write facts:

“Date __: Registry filing 18 sets completed by __ (me) due to clerk absence.”

This is the most polite weapon—and the sharpest.

Phase B: Handover system

Create a one-page weekly/daily task list (“Daily/Weekly Administrative Task Status”) and send it to your supervisor regularly (e.g., every Friday).
They don’t need to read every line—over time they’ll start seeing who does what.

Phase C: Request a clear role definition

Ask for a 15-minute meeting:

“I’d like clarity on my scope of work. I’m administrative staff and I support the clerk, but in practice I’ve been handling most clerk tasks continuously, which is starting to risk delays in my own admin duties.
Could you please define which tasks are primarily mine, which are the clerk’s, and what the backup plan is when the clerk is absent?”

This is professional language—not “complaining language.”

Phase D: Polite boundary with written assignments

When someone tries to dump work on you verbally, respond:

“Sure. Could you please confirm in LINE/email that you’re assigning this to me to cover today, so I can prioritize correctly?”

This does two things:

forces the assigner to own the instruction

removes the “verbal dumping” loophole

People who thrive on chaos hate written traces—which is exactly the point.

7) Should you speak up or stay quiet? You must speak—but through the right channel

What you should NOT do:

publicly shame her

gossip or start a mob in LINE ( Chat app)

sarcastic jabs (“If it’s not a shop, does that mean being late is fine?”)

That turns into drama and makes you look “immature,” even when you’re the one doing real work.

What you SHOULD do:

talk about work impact, not her personality

focus on risk: disruptions, errors, continuity

let leadership decide—don’t act like the judge

Remember this line:

“I don’t need to defeat her. I need to win through the system.”

8) If the organization stays passive, you need a mid-term strategy

Here’s the blunt truth:

If the organization has a history of “serious wrongdoing and the person still stays,”
the organization might not change.

So you do two tracks at the same time:

8.1 Protect yourself short-term

enforce your day off boundaries

stop auto-accepting everything

work within defined scope

keep written records

8.2 Plan your exit mid-term

Ask yourself honestly (you don’t need to answer me—answer yourself):

If 6 months from now nothing changes, can you survive here?
Is this job growing you—or just draining you?

Updating your resume and exploring options is not defeat.
It’s risk management for your life.

Some nonprofits are kind and well-run.
Some are messy systems where good people burn out and chaos survives.
You do not have to sacrifice your health for a system that doesn’t respect real work.

9) “Am I selfish for resting on Tuesday?”

Clear answer again:

No.

The selfish ones are:

the person who disrupts the system and hides behind excuses

the leadership that lets one person carry everything while pretending not to see

If you feel guilty every time you rest, that’s a red flag:
you’re being trained to believe rest equals wrongdoing, and that’s a dangerous environment.

Rest is part of work.
People who never rest eventually break and can’t work at all.

10) Summary—5 things you should do immediately

Take Tuesday off as your right, but notify professionally in advance and request a coverage plan.
Start a fact-only work log for 2–4 weeks.
Ask leadership to define scope and create a backup coverage rule when she’s absent.
Require written assignment confirmation for dumped tasks (LINE/email).
If the organization continues enabling this, plan your exit—don’t trade your health for an unfair system.

And a final line with a little edge:

On Tuesday, when you rest, I want you to do something that reminds your body:

“I’m worth more than being a spare part for a broken system.”

Sleep. Eat properly. Walk. Breathe.

Then come back the next day with this mindset:

“I’m a worker, not a human shock absorber.
I can help—but I won’t let anyone use my kindness as a ladder.”

coworker dumps work, unfair workload, nonprofit workplace issues, clerk absenteeism, chronic lateness, frequent leave abuse, poor management enforcement, fingerprint attendance system, LINE group reporting, workplace accountability, role ambiguity, burnout risk, setting boundaries at work, documentation work log, handover process, leadership enabling behavior, workplace fairness, coverage planning, professional communication scripts, toxic work culture, exit strategy career planning

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