Imagine being a single mom working at a retail store. If you were told they needed you to work overtime, would you do it for the extra money, or would you refuse because time with your kids is more important?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she prioritizes her kids over her job. The store owners are not at all sympathetic.

Read the full story below.

I got fired for not working OT

I used to work in a local store that was kinda like a big box store only smaller.

Last week the owners decided to do a 10% off everything in the store promotion. But they didn’t go about it the best way.

First, they didn’t tell the employees about it until it was happening and customers were yelling at us about not getting their 10% off.

Also they didn’t put any extra people on staff because they didn’t realize how crazy the store would get.

And it got crazy!

Usually on a 4 hour shift I might get 10 people total at my register.

Last week I was on register for 4 straight hours with people coming through, no break and no slowing down of customers.

So of course things were crazy all over the store, stuff was a mess, so the owners were asking everyone to work OT.

Some people were able to work lots of OT and wanted the money, but I could only work a little OT because I’m a single mom. My shifts were all arranged around my kids’ school days and activities.

She refused to put work above her kids.

On Halloween night one of the owners asks if I can work OT that night and I said no because I was going to take my kids trick-or-treating.

She begged me but I said I’m sorry, it’s their favorite holiday and I’m not going to make them miss it. Also many of my young single coworkers who were with me told the owner they could stay till closing so they had lots of extra hands on deck.

Yesterday I walked in to start my shift and the owner told me to come to her office, then fired me officially. She said they need someone more dedicated to the store and can’t have me putting other things before my work.

I’m ticked off because money is going to be really tight for awhile but no store is more important than my kids.

It sounds like she’s better off without that job. I hope she finds another job that understands single moms need to be there for their kids.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this situation.

Here’s a similar story.

Media attention might help.

A minimum wage retail job is not exactly a dream job.

I completely agree.

She’ll be better off somewhere else.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.