Their Boss Faked Having COVID for Eight Weeks to Go on a Reality Show – They Threw an All-Office Watch Party to Expose the Truth

In the middle of a high-stakes project during the pandemic, a team was counting on their boss to lead but he vanished without a trace.

Deadlines loomed, tensions ran high, and the employees tried to carry on, thinking their absent leader might be genuinely ill.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into nearly two months, and the truth behind his disappearance was far more outrageous than anyone could have imagined.

Here’s the original post:

The Disappearing Act

The boss had disappeared just as the team was gearing up for their most challenging project in years. At first, the employees managed on their own, delegating tasks and troubleshooting within their authority.

Most decisions could be handled remotely, and virtual work allowed them to keep the project moving.

But certain approvals required his sign-off, and after roughly a week and a half with no word, the team contacted his superior. They were told he had COVID. Naturally, the team sent well-wishes and avoided bothering him with work matters.

Weeks passed. Three. Four. Five. Still, no contact. The project began to unravel, and employees had to navigate bureaucratic layers just to accomplish anything, work that had previously been signed off in real time by their absent boss.

The Suspicion

Around week four or five, one team member suggested he might be lying about having COVID. The remark caused outrage, how could anyone fake a pandemic illness?

But the seed of doubt was planted. The team continued working long hours, often without overtime, while their boss remained absent, unaccountable, and seemingly unconcerned.

The Truth Revealed

Eight weeks into his absence, the boss reappeared in a morning meeting. Rested, tanned, and well-fed, he casually announced he was back. No explanations. No hospital stories. Just a quick “glad to be better.”

Months later, the narrator’s sister sent a promo for a new reality show. Shockingly, there he was: smiling, performing, and thriving on screen. It was clear the boss had taken six weeks off under the guise of illness to film a reality TV show while the team worked overtime to keep the project afloat.

The Revenge Plan

Confronting him directly seemed pointless. Doing nothing felt unacceptable. When corporate encouraged virtual social events to maintain team culture, the narrator had an idea.

Using the promo, they casually hyped the show to colleagues, framing it as a fun virtual watch party.

Custom shirts were ordered, e-vites were sent to department members and upper management, and the event was presented as a lighthearted corporate gathering.

The boss had no idea. He wasn’t invited. The narrator planned to let him discover it only if he actively asked.

Showtime

The day of the watch party arrived. Screensharing the show, the narrator watched 64 colleagues react as the boss appeared on screen. Shock, confusion, and disbelief spread through the virtual room. Questions flew: “When was this filmed?” “How long has he been gone?”

By the end, only core team members remained. The event ended quickly, leaving everyone stunned and the boss’s deception laid bare.

Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:

Redditors praised the move as bold and “nuclear,” highlighting the person’s savvy in holding the coworker accountable for poor workplace behavior, especially in a public or televised setting.

Some Redditors went off-topic, sharing reality show recommendations and poking fun at “bumbling i__ots” on TV, while others subtly tied it back to the original post by imagining how such characters would fare in real-life situations.

Redditors couldn’t help but marvel at the absurdity of reality-show chaos, sharing stories of friends or colleagues disappearing for secret filming,

Sweet Justice

The reality show had portrayed him as bumbling and incompetent, highlighting flaws already visible at work. Within weeks, he was fired.

A patient and hardworking colleague was promoted to his position. The narrator, who orchestrated the reveal, became an office legend.

After dozens of hours of uncompensated overtime and mounting stress, watching the boss exposed on screen delivered a nearly cinematic payback, sweet, satisfying, and entirely deserved.