Boss asks woman to skip holiday so colleague can spend thanksgiving with family, leaving her stunned

Work pressure often keeps us away from celebrating special moments with our closest ones. While work demands our attention on weekdays, it becomes even more difficult when employees without kids are expected to cover for their colleagues on holidays. A similar incident was shared on Reddit when u/HuntMuted5501 spoke about her co-worker asking her to work on Thanksgiving so she could celebrate with her kids.

The 28-year-old female wrote, "This year, I’m scheduled to work on Christmas but get Thanksgiving off. This is my first holiday off since I’ve been on the job, so I’m very excited. One of my co-workers, June, was in the same hiring class as me. She’s a few years older because she started grad school late and is married with two young kids. On Friday, she approached me and asked if I would be willing to cover her shift on Thanksgiving so she could celebrate with her kids." As shared in the post, the woman had been working in the company for over two years and it was common to work on holidays.

The woman was upset as she was looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with her family, fiance and future in-laws. She was excited as this would have been the first time both families were doing a "blended holiday." The woman explained the situation to June and suggested, "celebrating the holiday on a later date with her family" because she did not want to cover her shift. Following this, June was annoyed and said that the woman was "breaking the informal code of the office."

The woman approached her mentor, who surprised her by saying she should have "agreed to cover for June so her kids could be with their mother on Thanksgiving." Her mentor even asked her to take a step back to be fair to June's kids who don’t get to see their mother as often as they should. Dejected by the unrealistic expectation, the woman explained that individuals without children should not be expected to cover up for their colleagues with kids. 

Moreover, the woman's mentor conveyed she would have a different approach when she decides to have children. "I’m pretty clear about the fact that when I decide to have kids, I won’t expect my co-workers to pay the price for that decision," she shared on Reddit. As soon as she shared her story on the platform, people flooded the comment section, talking about such an unrealistic work expectation. u/incogvee commented, "NTA, everyone deserves to celebrate holidays with family kids or no kids. June can deal with working Thanksgiving. You already have plans and that's the answer. 'June, this is my first holiday off and I've made plans to celebrate with my family.'"

"This is your manager's problem to fix, not yours! Don’t feel guilty, NTA," another individual u/ExtremeAssistance595 commented. Meanwhile, u/MsFear came up with a possible solution and wrote, "Offer to take her Thanksgiving shift if she takes your Christmas one. I have sympathy for her, but she CHOSE a career where she’s expected to work some holidays. You deserve the day off as much as she does." u/Dogandcatslady made a sarcastic comment and said, "Tell them your mom wants to see her child on the holiday."