I think you misunderstood my point, and I respectfully disagree with good work being some guaranteed path to success. Today, I think there are probably plenty of good workers in the unemployment lines and plenty of crummy layabouts who are chums with the boss still drawing a salary. The reality is that I get paid by the hour, so if I do 1 'piece' or 300 it really makes no difference in my salary; what I will have extreme trouble doing is kissing the rear end of Coworker B when she whines and moans about how horribly stressful her life is (when she can decide at any moment she's going to stay home all day). I simply don't want to hear it. I want to be sensitive to Coworker B, because I do believe she thinks she is under stress (forget the fact that she could deal with it in more constructive ways) but I don't want to enable her to continue doing what she is doing by my spoken agreement to her false claims of being overworked. As for "behind the scenes" I probably should have mentioned that the boss discusses confidential matters right in front of everyone and what I clearly heard her say was basically that she is complicit in these absences. Coworker A I'm staying away from, considering that one of her stories was that during her last panic attack she became violent; and that she gets violent with anyone who "thwarts" her when she is having an attack (she was telling someone else this, I didn't say a word, but just kept working). I don't care if she says she is marrying Prince William wearing a tutu next week, I'm keeping my head down around her, and the more I think about it, re-doing her work is a small price to pay for her not to flip out and start throwing punches. I know better than to complain; there ain't no crying in baseball and there ain't no complainin' where I work. We're all happy, happy campers, and everything is beautiful and wonderful and what not and "what the --- is the matter with you" if you notice anything that is askew. I'm just trying to get through the day without nonstop misery, and the number one reason I feel so cruddy is having to put up with unreality shoved in my face and being forced to kiss it and say how real it tastes. As for the company noticing (eventually) all the absences, as near as I can tell there is rampant cheating on timekeeping (not just in my area) and that the cheating isn't confined to my low level but extends up the ladder to a much higher level than mine. The company did try to address this several years ago, but the mechanisms they put in place actually make it easier to cheat with less risk of being caught. That isn't to say everyone cheats; I don't and I know others who don't, but I know just as many who, if they are claiming they are working a full week, are just not being truthful. So to get back to my point, I want to be supportive of Coworker B's feelings of stress, but I think it is enabling to allow her to continue to avoid addressing the cause(s) by allowing her to continue to say to my face, when she does show up, how horribly overworked she is.