'Tis the season for holiday work drama! Buckle up, folks, because this is a good one! Recently, I came across a story by Reddit user FriendlyAd2809, who was pressured by a coworker to swap holiday shifts so that said coworker could spend Christmas with her children, implying that she should take priority due to being a parent.
Here's the story in u/FriendlyAd2809's own words: "So context, my office closes over Christmas and generally opens around the 2nd/3rd of January. This year, we were instructed to put in our leave requests up until the 2nd, and put a second request through for any additional days after that. Then, they would approve additional days after the 2nd once everyone had applied and they got to assess how much staff they would have."
"The one who didn’t put in any extra days has since gone to the managers and said she wanted to take off until the 8th also because she wants to spend time with her kids (they’re, like, 8/9) and her husband."
"My bosses declined as they needed two staff members here and it hadn’t been put in beforehand. My colleague said she should've put in the extra days, but the rest of the team knew and did it."
"Bosses said the only way she could have it off was if she could get another staff member to come back early. She asked me in a passive aggressive email because 'Christmas holidays are about being with family, and because I don’t have children, I could come back on the 2nd and swap with her.'"
"I declined, saying that I had plans for that time, and she lost it! She has been going around saying that I ruined her holiday plans and am being inconsiderate of people with families and children."
Well, the majority of redditors are on the side of u/FriendlyAd2809, with one writing: "Not the asshole. You have plans, you requested the leave. End of story. If it were a matter of working Christmas Day itself and a colleague had a 3–6-year-old, I might consider swapping. But after New Year? Nope, a thousand times nope." —Remember1959
Agreeing, another user wrote: "It wouldn’t matter if you were taking the days off to spend by yourself alone, you deserve the time off as much as anyone else, and you played by the rules, and she didn’t. Good on you for not becoming her doormat."
One parent defended the employee's decision not to take the holiday shift:
Another user highlighted the point that just because someone isn't a parent, doesn't mean they don't have family:
"Not the asshole. I'm guessing she didn't bother putting in her request in time because she thought 'won't someone think of the children' and figured she'd be able get her own way. Families come in many different shapes and sizes, and just because someone doesn't have children of their own, doesn't mean that their family is less deserving of the time off."