Office Worker Reports Colleague for Cheating in the Company Step Count Competition

• An anonymous worker says one of their colleagues cheated in an office health competition
• In a post on Reddit, the person explains that they were among those in the lead, until one woman logged 65,000 steps in a day
• Now, other Reddit users are offering their takes on the situation

An office worker says one of their colleagues "cheated" during the company-wide step count competition — and they called them out for it.

As an anonymous person writes on Reddit, participation in the 20-day program was voluntary and meant that "if the average number of steps is greater than or equal to a 5K per day, all participants get a Friday half day." The person with the most steps total, meanwhile, would win an Apple Watch.

"My goal was 20,000 steps a day thinking this would easily put me in the lead but on day 1 this guy Dave posted 23,000," they write. "I sent him a message on Teams, saying something along the lines of 'it’s on!' The next day I put up 24,000. He answers back with 25,000. Another coworker Jenna also joined in. The 3 of us started having daily chats about our workouts."

By week two, they share, it was looking certain that one of the trio would win the competition.

"Then I checked the log and out of nowhere, Tiffany, who’d been posting 10-15,000 steps per day, posts 65,000 steps," they write. "For perspective, a marathon I ran resulted in 52,000. So I’m skeptical but also, maybe Tiffany ran a casual ultra marathon on a workday? Who knows."

So, the poster sent Tiffany a message, asking, “ 'That’s a lot of steps, what’s your secret?' ”

"She said she plays volleyball and wanted to count the steps from her games but can’t safely keep her phone or watch on her to keep count," they write. So, they used a chart online that gave a step equivalent for various activities, and had the steps input manually.

"Fair enough but the math still ain’t mathin so I said, 'Wow, you must have played for like 8 hours!' Her reply was, 'well I also rode my bike.' "

The post continues: "Turns out she didn’t just use the chart for volleyball, she used it to count everything she did and convert it into steps. Bike riding, stretching, yoga, washing the dishes. All great but those are not STEPS. This seemed pretty lame to me and I just said 'I don’t think that’s really in the spirit of this competition.' "

The person then went to the colleague organizing the competition, to explain that "Tiffany may need some clarification" in counting her steps.

"Not 2 minutes later I get this message from Tiffany: 'Really, you complained about me? That’s actually not in the spirit of the competition. I lost a pet recently and have been so depressed. I’ve been struggling to lose weight and I was so proud of my steps from yesterday! Not everyone can be a marathon runner like you, really uncool.' "

In an update, the worker announces that Tiffany ultimately "won the steps competition," and that while frustrated, they haven't attempted to make a bigger deal of the situation.

Fellow Reddit users are offering their take on the situation, with one writing, "The fact that nobody would call her on it is wild."

Adds another: "I would have just posted the same way she did and always beat her by 1-10 steps after she posts. Then if she complained, you could have just said you used her calculations. Seems like no one was really checking."