Office policies often promise equality, but actually enforcing it is a different story.

When a holiday staffing decision forced one employee and a coworker to face off over who would stay late, one coworker played by the rules — and the other tried to play the sympathy card.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

Coworker cried about staying late

Okay, so the place I work allows half the staff (two of the seven people have to stay) to leave early the day before a holiday.

So about six times a year this happens, and we keep a list of who stays so we know whose turn it is.

So yesterday we got the call to half staff, and two people had to stay.

One person volunteered right away because she knew it was her turn.

Which left only two remaining.

So it came down to who was the second person to stay. It was between me and someone else.

I pointed out I have already stayed twice this year, and the other person has only stayed once.

This coworker was quick with a convenient sob story.

This person started crying, saying it wasn’t fair and that she always stayed when it was Christmas Eve.

I looked at the list, and yes, she stayed last Christmas, but that date fell on Friday, December 22 (not exactly Christmas Eve).

But the other facts didn’t quite line up.

She didn’t stay on Christmas Eve in 2022, 2021, 2020, or 2019.

I also pointed out that next week, when they do half staff, I have to stay because on that day I have to prepare my work for the following workday.

My job duties outline this, and everyone knows it. Everyone agreed with me except her.

Then she tried another approach.

Then she said that I should stay because she has kids and I don’t.

She also left early the day before and took off the day after Christmas.

She also took three days off the week prior.

Her guilt tripping really rubbed this employee the wrong way.

I’m so mad that she cried and tried to garner sympathy and force me to stay when it was clearly her turn.

She never volunteered during the year, and I do.

I have no problem staying when it’s my turn, but why should I stay more than she does? We get paid the same.

End rant.

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This story just goes to show how quickly fairness can fall apart.

What did Reddit think?

There’s noting worse than someone who manages to ruin something good for everyone else.

In life, you only get so many Christmases with family.

This commenter is tired of people using their kids as a bargaining tool.

In a truly fair workplace, everyone needs to play their part.

Turns out, tears won’t get you out of doing your job.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.