The 3rd friend on the line - we bond over having abusive bosses. And one thing we agree on is that we go out of our way to get work done for those we know have abusive bosses... because we know, when the work isn't done.. the coward boss would never take it up with a person he doesn't know and would harass his employee.

In the case where someone doesn't believe you have an abusive boss, they might slack off when covering because they think YOU should do it... but if in fact, the person covering KNOWs the consequences for the person .... that kind of really makes me feel that this guy knew and didn't care.