Employee Says One Of Her Co-Workers Called A Wellness Check On Her Because She Hasn't Shown Up To Work — But She Works From Home
Was it an honest mistake, or something more sinister?
Bennian / Shutterstock Sometimes, strange things happen that we can’t explain. That’s what one employee experienced when the police checked on her because she hadn’t been seen at work in two weeks.
The only problem with her co-worker's concern was that the woman worked from home.
A woman said that a co-worker called the police to do a wellness check on her because she had been missing from work, even though she works remotely.
TikToker Sheryl recently shared her story of being visited by the police for a strange reason.
“Okay, something weird just happened,” Sheryl said. “I’m a little bit freaked out by it.”
Sheryl explained that she had some unexpected visitors show up at her door. “So, I just got a knock on my door, and it was two police officers and a social worker. They said that they were here to do a wellness check on me,” she said.
The trio of officials informed Sheryl they were “here to do a wellness check on me because somebody that I work with called and reported that I haven’t shown up to work in two weeks.”
There was just one problem. “I work remotely, so this is, like, kind of strange, right?” she asked.
Sheryl explained that not only does she work remotely, but she interacts with her co-workers throughout the day. “I’m on meetings with my co-workers almost every day, I’m active on Teams every day, like, my co-workers can, like, see that I’m here, I’m fine, I’m at work, I’m on the clock. Like, my boss can see that I’m working,” she said.
To make things even weirder, Sheryl said, “I asked them the name of the person that called, and it was not a name that I had ever heard before, not a name that I recognized from anybody within my company, not anybody from HR. Just to be extra sure, like, I searched the name in our little employee directory. Nothing.”
Photo: Cliff Booth / Pexels
Fellow TikTok users were very concerned about the incident.
Sheryl’s fellow TikTokers were concerned about her well-being after her wellness check. They suspected something darker could be going on.
“I’d wonder if someone is stalking you,” one person pointed out.
“I would be concerned and would call my local police department to make sure they’re legit,” someone else said.
Photo: Jacoby Clarke / Pexels
Another theory that caught on quickly was that of identity theft. “Check your credit score and SSN,” someone advised. “Maybe a data breach, and they have a job using your info.”
It is possible to steal someone’s identity for the purpose of getting a job in their name. According to Equifax, “Employment identity theft is illegal, and once you report it, government agencies such as the IRS, the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will work with you to correct any false information.”
Sheryl didn’t think anything so sinister was going on.
For her part, Sheryl wasn’t as concerned about what happened as other people were. “I am confident that they were, in fact, real police officers,” she stated. “Aside from the fact that they were in uniform and had two squad cars out front, I also saw a picture of one of them on the police department website.”
Sheryl also didn’t think someone had made a fake report. “Nobody that I’m close with in my life really has a reason to do that,” she said. “I don’t have beef with anybody.”
That left her with two possible options for what happened. “Either somebody stole my identity, or they came to the wrong house and meant to actually go check on somebody else, and I’m leaning towards it being the latter,” she explained.
Luckily for Sheryl, nothing bad seems to have happened. It really does seem to be a simple, albeit strange, case of mistaken identity.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.