A shift swap is supposed to be a favor between coworkers, not a trap.

One college student agreed to swap an 8-to-3 shift with a coworker, an even split that seemed fair.

His manager had told the team that swaps didn’t need approval after the schedule was posted, and he’d even mentioned the plan to him out loud, getting what felt like a thumbs up from his boss.

But things got complicated when his manager texted him on his day off, asking where he was. His coworker hadn’t showed up to take his shift like they agreed.

It turned out she’d been told only certain people could cover her shift, and the request was never denied in the app.

The employee was an hour and a half away, and suddenly looked like a no-show.

Keep reading for the full story.

i swapped shifts as a favor to someone and they didn’t show up to cover my shift like i had planned

I am a college student working a summer job. I unfortunately only work two days a week at the place I am referring to in this post because the commute is so far (about an hour and a half one way), and I have nowhere closer to stay.

Soon his coworker came to him with a proposition.

My coworker sent a request in through the app that we use for scheduling to swap shifts with me. She would work my 8-3 shift one day, and I would work her 8-3 shift another day.

The most even split, so I said yes to the request.

Their manager is usually pretty hands-off when it comes to things like this.

Now, normally when you accept a request like this on the app, it needs manager approval.

However, our manager who makes the schedules has made it clear that once the schedule is posted, it’s up to us to find coverage or swap shifts, even without managerial approval.

The employee still makes his plans clear to his manager.

My previous shift, this same manager said he thought I wasn’t working that day because he thought he saw I was covering someone else on another day.

I said to him VERBALLY, “Oh yeah, that’s on THIS DAY, and I’m swapping shifts with THIS PERSON. Not today.”

And he said, “Ah, okay,” and moved on.

However, this was clearly in one ear, out the other.

Fast forward to my now-extra day off, and my manager texts me and asks me where I’m at… I respond with, “I swapped shifts with this person, I’m working tomorrow!”

The manager texts back and says, “Well, that person isn’t here.”

The employee becomes immediately concerned with his job security, so he checks in with this coworker.

Great, now I’m freaking out because I’m an hour and a half away and about to jump straight in my car to go fix this.

I message the person I was supposed to swap with: “Hey, did we not agree to swapping? Why are you not there?”

Apparently she had some very important information that she didn’t think to share sooner.

She states that the manager told her that only certain people were allowed to swap her for that shift because she’s opening herself that day without a manager present, and only certain people have permission to do that.

She also said that he was supposed to force-deny the request in the app because of that, but he didn’t.

So now the employee is left in a difficult position.

I went back to message my manager once again to try and fix this and offered to come in to work the closing shift THAT DAY, and I would still come in on the day I was supposed to for the swap. The only response to that that I got was “It’s all good.”

So now I have no idea if I’m going in on that day or not or what’s happening, but for some reason, I feel like an AH.

Is this something that just happens sometimes, or did I do something wrong? I’m probably overreacting, right?

The boss says it’s fine, but bosses don’t always say what they really mean.

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

This user thinks the employee should just take their boss’ “it’s all good” at face value.

Mix-ups like this can sometimes work out for the better when they inspire better policy.

Some jobs just aren’t worth holding onto that tightly.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer service rep who hung up and called a customer back to get around a time limit, but ended up getting an award instead of a reprimand after the customer praised his service.

Some jobs are best to simply use as a learning experience.

This scheduling system clearly has some concerning flaws if it’s this easy to cause so much confusion.

The employee did everything he could. He used the app, mentioned the plan to his manager, and offered to make up the time.

Ultimately, there’s nothing else a college student on a long commute can reasonably do.

Sometimes you just have to relax and try to do better next time.