Husband Lost Laptop With Months of Work After Ignoring Wa…
The Original Post
I guess the title sounds harsh but I am kind of struggling with this. My husband and I have been together for 5 years. We also work for the same company and carpool to and from work a lot. Our young child is in daycare at our office so it’s the three of us arriving and leaving together most days. (Maybe relevant?)
My husband left his laptop on top of my car yesterday when we left work. Despite me suggesting so many times that he get a case and also that he does not set his computer on top of the car, he does this every single day. Probably once a week, he can’t find his computer and panics that he left it on top of the car (it’s usually in the back seat or something). But this time, the dreaded thing actually happened.
When we got home last night, he couldn’t find the computer and was panicking that he left it on the car. I assured him it was probably still sitting on his desk at work, but when it wasn’t there this morning, he had security check the cameras and sure enough, we’d pulled out of the parking deck with it on the roof.
To make things a million times worse, he’s been working on a \*huge\* complex spreadsheet for months and despite the fact that our company migrated all files to share point over a year ago, he told me today that he had his spreadsheet saved ON THE DESKTOP! Since the cloud migration, you actually have to work to save something locally on your computer.
I love my husband and I know he is absolutely beyond devastated about losing all of his hard work. I want to hug him and tell him I love him and it will all be okay.
But I also want to slap him because dude…wtf. You did not one, but two insanely dumb things and this is your punishment.
Over all I’m a nice person so I won’t say “I told you so” instead I’ll just be there to comfort him. But wow. What would you do if you were me and your partner was extremely depressed over their own poor choices?
TL;DR – husband made two bad decisions that lost him months of work. I’m torn between comforting him and wanting to smack some sense into him. Unsure how to approach this.
What Reddit Said
Redditors overwhelmingly supported the wife’s frustration while advising restraint. Most agreed the husband had clearly “f*cked around and found out” through his own repeated poor choices. However, they emphasized he was already suffering enough consequences.
Meanwhile, IT professionals jumped in with helpful recovery suggestions. Many pointed out that OneDrive sync might have automatically saved his work to the cloud. Therefore, all hope might not be lost for retrieving the months of spreadsheet data.
The Verdict
The consensus was clear: don’t kick him while he’s down, but don’t coddle him either. This husband lost laptop work months due to ignoring basic safety and backup protocols despite repeated warnings. Reddit advised letting natural consequences teach the lesson rather than adding shame. This represents a classic case of relationship support during self-inflicted crises.
Original post from r/relationship_advice (1,808 upvotes, 282 comments)