Imagine working in a job where it’s you and one other person who have the same position, and if one of you takes the day off the other can’t. If you wanted to take a certain day off work but you knew your coworker wanted to take that day off too, would you quickly put in for time off or let your coworker take the day off instead?

In this story, one woman is in this exact situation, and she’s not sure what to do.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for taking PTO my coworker said that she was going to take?

I (f) have been working at my job for the past 9 months. I work very closely with a coworker (also f, we’ll call her A) and if she is gone, I have to take over all of her patients as we work in healthcare.

At least one of us has to be at work during the week. Although regular hours plan for both of us to be there.

In the time that I have been there, this coworker has called in the day of at least 16 times (if not more). This is very difficult as our job moves very quickly and it creates double the work.

Her coworker isn’t always honest.

I understand that life happens and you get sick.

Although I have proof of this coworker has lied about being sick or what she was doing at least a couple times.

In a recent incident, she had asked another coworker (M) to come into work to cover for her.

M had told her that she could not. This was a day before A was going to out of work.

A told M that she would try to come into work that day but would probably be late.

When her coworker misses work, it really impacts her work day.

Protocol for missing work at our job is to at least inform the people that you work closely with (me) and our boss.

I was not informed that I would be working by myself until I was told my someone else that morning. This means I had to replan my whole day.

There have been many instances where I have to skip lunch and stay 1 1/2 to 2 hours overtime.

This is not normal for my job and you could get in trouble for it.

She knows when her coworker wants to take time off over the holidays.

Anyways, our doctor is going to be gone for two weeks around the holidays except for the Mondays.

My coworker has been saying that she is taking both of the Mondays off. This means that I cannot take them off.

After talking with my boss, she said that A did not take off the first Monday in the system and I could still take it off.

I believe that A has not accrued enough PTO to put it in the schedule yet.

She wants to take time off too.

Days off are first come first serve.

I know that this coworker is also going to visit family, but I don’t know what days.

I really want to take that Monday off because I never take off work and I want to spend time with family too.

Should I retract the day and let A have it? Or should I keep it and let her figure it out?

Her coworker is used to being able to get her way no matter what. OP should definitely take the day off if she wants to take the day off. It’s about time she made life inconvenient for her coworker for a change.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

She should definitely take the day off.

This is a very good point!

This person’s sister was in a similar situation.

Everyone thinks she should take the day off.

She needs to prioritize what she wants, not what her selfish coworker wants.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.