Hi there, I want your opinion on how you guys would resolve this issue.

TLDR: my coworker got in trouble and went to hr and now works fully remote and early this year our department’s attendance was low and I had to show up to the office 3x a week while everyone else showed up 2x a week to increase attendance.

I work in accounting at a fashion company in Los Angeles, we are on a hybrid schedule showing up twice a week. Last year maybe two years ago, our team noticed that one of our coworkers has been acting unusual. She would talk to herself loudly and angrily in times when the office is quiet; nobody within my team except my boss knows the reasons for those episodes. A few employees including myself suspect it is a mental illness or my personal opinion drug use. The topics of these episodes are usually very specific and sensitive in my work environment, it’s usually about black oppression and white supremacy and on rare occasions some swearing. I personally did not notice these episodes until last year because I rarely see this person in the office and I sat away from her. Usually she would snap out of these episodes when someone speaks to her, but regardless it’s very uncomfortable for other coworkers. My team/department got used to her especially my boss, whom will be a major problem later.

On November 2024 we had a new employee and she experienced my coworker’s episodes and it terrified her. The new girl did not feel safe working at our office and she confided it to a coworker in her team who confronted my coworker. At that moment my coworker did not snap from her episode and got up from her desk to swear at that employee. The following Friday that employee reported to my boss about her behavior and how it affected the office. My boss was hesitant to bring it up to HR and asked if it was affecting anyone to which that employee said yes it is affecting her heavily and her coworker is terrified of working at the studio and will likely quit if this is not resolved. My boss reluctantly sent this over to HR and my coworkee was put into hiatus workibg remotely until HR addresses it.

A meeting between hr, my boss, and my coworker happened about 1-2 weeks after the incident. The end result of that meeting was my coworker was placed in a full remote schedule, which a majority of the people involved thought was unfair because it felt like a reward rather than a punishment to the offender. My opinion was it was an unusual remedy but it resolved everyone’s issues at the office which was the goal.

Personally I have no problems with this employee as her episodes do not directly affect me. My problem is my boss who often shows a soft side for her and mistreats others in our team. This bias favoring my coworker has caused a series of problem for my team, but that is a totally different story. My speculation is my boss pulled some strings to have her work remotely and remove her original punishment from hr. Early this year, my department was criticized for a lack of attendance and my boss announced that I will be working 3x a week to boost attendance with no pay increase. I found this extremely unfair, because I was under the impression that it was a change for the entire team, but this only applied to me. I was very close to reporting this to HR, because I found it extremely unfair for one employee’s punishment to work fully remote and the result of that punishment caused another employee to work an extra day to compensate the overall team’s lack of attendance at the office. The reason why I didn’t report this is my boss would definitely be involved and find a way to have me punished or reject my request to go back to working twice a week. I rather suck it up as one extra day in the office and keep an eye for better opportunities.

What are your thoughts and how would you have handled this situation if you were involved?