I had a coworker for my first few weeks at work who was very nice. A very nice person who would occasionally say things like “no, we definitely have to close [this area of our store] later, or our store leaders might get mad :)” and was always helping new hires. We were all told that this person was our coworker who was in charge of the newest hires, but was basically our equal. Nope. Today I found out they’re basically always checking in with the management about us, being nice because we’re all their underlings, and every time something was done “for store leadership” it was of course done for them. I just feel like such an idiot. I feel used, I thought this person was just being nice. I thought they were my friend. But they just sold them being polite to their job because it was in the management description. I have a hard time making friends sometimes, and I just feel so tricked for trusting this person because they were friendly.