More and more people are choosing to be child-free. However, just because someone chooses to not have children in their life, doesn't mean their life isn't full. Child-free people still have families, friends, and lives that matter. But that realization is sometimes lost on coworkers, which is exactly what happened to Reddit user Content_Plate1802 (or Content for short), who explained in a now-deleted viral post that she is being treated differently at work because she doesn't have kids.
Here's Content's story in her own words: "I, a 27-year-old female, work in a team of five. One of the members, let's call her Ava, is pregnant. Our company allows only six months paid maternity leave. Ava has been having a rough pregnancy and has been ordered bed rest by her doctor. She is only in her second trimester. But she has already been calling in sick a lot and has extinguished her paid sick leaves."
"Her and her husband are renting and are not doing great financially. They need her income for the next five months 'til baby is due and she can officially go on paid maternity leave. Our boss asked us to figure it out. We cannot actually do our work remotely. To enable her to work remotely, we will have to dedicate hours of our work time working on behalf of her physically and gathering info she requires."
"It will be very difficult to do and to complete our own work. We will have to work additional hours. Our company doesn't pay overtime."
"All others in my team already have family and kids. I am the only one without kids or, as others said, responsibilities. They asked me to do the additional work to help Ava out. I said no. I sympathize with Ava. But she made a decision to have a baby, and I cannot work extra hours every day to help her."
"My coworkers said I was being an asshole for not helping. I told them if they cared so much, let us all help together. Then everyone will have extra hours to work. They complained they cannot since they have family to get back to and responsibilities. I said I have my own life, too. Either we all help together, taking turns, or we don't help.
I am not going to sacrifice all my days for her. None of them want to help, and I let our boss know. He hired a temporary replacement for Ava. Ava and the rest of my colleagues are calling me a asshole now. Am I?"
After considering Content's story, most readers pointed out that Content and her coworkers should have never been brought into this situation to begin with.
"Your boss has actually created the problem by trying to pass it on to all of you as a group. Any issue is between Ava and the company, and none of you should have been drawn in," user kiwimuz said.
It was always the company's responsibility to find a fair replacement for Ava — whether that be by compensating the group for extra duties or hiring a temp. Instead, they fostered an environment where employees turned on one another and Content bore the brunt.
"Not the asshole and not your problem," user u/tealcandtrip said. "It is the boss’s problem to make sure the work is done and the company’s problem to make sure they hire enough staffing to complete all the work. Surprise, surprise. When the employees refused to take a bunch of extra work for no pay, they were forced to hire another staff member, which is what they should have done all along."
And even if — in an alternate universe — the situation called for employees to decide how to split up the work fairly, there's no reason why they should have all assigned the load to Content alone.
"Not the asshole. The extra work needs to be divided evenly, not dumped on one employee. Your coworkers are being asses," user christina0001 said.
"Just because you don’t have children doesn’t mean you don’t have responsibilities and a life outside of your job," user chevroni88 said.
"It’s unfortunate she’s been put on bed rest so early into her pregnancy, especially when they should be saving for a baby, but that shouldn’t affect you and your life."
Others who have been in similar situations could relate. "My wife has to fight this every year with holiday schedules. She works a job that is an essential service, and this HAS to be covered 24/7. Her coworkers always try to goad her into working every holiday 'because [they] have kids and families and it's just you and your husband,'" user TheDreadPirateJeff shared.
"The hell it's not. We both have families, both have parents (thankfully), and WE are a family in any case, and our desire to spend holidays together is just as valid as anyone else's."
Child-free people do not exist to pick up the load when people with kids get overwhelmed by their choices.
"I am so sick of hearing about child-free people not being valued as human beings with personal lives that are as important as parent's. We do not exist to take on the extra burden that others have because they chose to have children," user queen0fgreen said. "We also have aging parents, sick family, hobbies, mental health issues, ect. ect. ect. that deserve to have our personal time dedicated to. Fuck that. It's not your fault this nation and your company doesn't have comprehensive security nets for pregnancy/postpartum."