Sorry, this is really my first post. I’m borrowing a friend’s login to post and I’m not great at writing, so sorry in advance if this is confusing. I just finished my shift and my head’s fuzzy and my heart’s still pounding. I still can’t believe this actually happened.

I’m 35 and work at a hotel in downtown Khon Kaen, been a front desk receptionist for over 7 years. The job’s stressful like any service job — gotta smile even when exhausted, deal with guests complaining about rooms, food, wrong bills, blah blah. Lately though the pressure isn’t just from guests, it’s from people on the team. Ugh, it’s so suffocating.

It started with the manager often picking one person from the team to do special tasks like train new hires or help other departments. He picks that person a lot. That person is about 26-27, pretty, has lots of friends on social. I’m not jealous, really, but sometimes it’s weird. Like one time I asked to swap a day off in advance because I had to go to a funeral, and the manager said, “It’s fine, will you be back in time?” in a tone that didn’t sound sincere at all. I told a friend who smiled and said don’t worry, she’d sort it, but actually she went to talk to the manager and he gave the shift to the person he likes instead of my friend. I was stunned and just quiet.

Then there was something worse. Two weeks ago around 4:30 AM I got a call from housekeeping saying a guest complained a key card was missing. They said an employee card had been used to scan into a room after hours — and that employee was me. At first I thought it was a mistake because I finished my shift early morning and went home, but the manager called me in and showed CCTV images. The person in the footage had a silhouette that looked kind of like me, but the photo was a bit blurry. I tried to explain I left work at 10:07 PM and a friend who was at the little coffee shop on the corner (where I like to eat porridge before going home) could vouch — she even called the manager (took about 2 minutes). The manager was stone-faced and said, “If the image matches the time record, we’ll handle it accordingly,” and shut the conversation down. I was so confused.

After that they made me sign something like a statement. I felt pressured so I signed because I was afraid it would escalate. Then they cut my hours saying there was an “issue of credibility,” so my pay dropped quite a bit. I’m not okay with that but I can’t fight much because I’m the main earner at home. My parents live out of town, plus transport, food, motorbike petrol — about 40-50 baht a day — I need to make ends meet.

The thing is, the coworker the manager favors is still working as normal. Sometimes she comes back late and the manager never calls her in, even though there are several stock images of her too. Why am I the one made so obvious like this? Am I overthinking? I’m starting to suspect people are gossiping about me — maybe because I speak up when there’s a problem or because I don’t join the after-work gossip sessions.

I asked security for the full CCTV files. They said some files were compressed or not fully stored because the system’s old. I was like, what? Then what’s the evidence? I went to talk to a different senior manager. He listened quietly and said he’d investigate, but it’s been almost two weeks and nothing clear has come back — just “we are investigating” and cold looks at work.

Some nights I really can’t sleep, thinking about why a job I love has to go through this. I’ve bought snacks to share with coworkers, tried to be nice, but this makes me question myself and my career. I feel labeled even though there’s no clear proof of wrongdoing.

Am I being too sensitive? Should I bring more formal evidence to HR? I don’t want the workplace to turn into a war but I also don’t want my life ruined by one manager’s decision. What do you guys think? What should I do? I feel like I’m walking on a thin rope all the time with no stability.

Thanks for reading this far. If anyone’s been through something similar please share how you handled it or any advice. What kind of evidence should I collect — screenshots of chats, logs of coworkers’ in/out slips, or how to request higher-quality CCTV files? Please advise lol

P.S. Sorry if my tone is messy, I’m still shocked. Hands shaking, holding the paper coffee cup next to my computer as comfort. Sobs T_T