She Works While Attending School And Didn’t Want To Take On The Holiday Shift, Even After Hearing About Her Coworker’s Loss
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A day off can matter for many reasons, even when someone else has a heartbreaking request.
This college student planned to use Mother’s Day to study for important final exams.
A grieving coworker politely asked to trade shifts, but another employee turned the refusal into a personal attack.
See why this painful scheduling conflict left her questioning her choice.
AITA for refusing to give my day off on Mother’s Day to my coworker who lost her kid?
“I’m (22F) a full time student working part time.
Last year one of my coworkers who I’ll Linda (36F) lost her 8 y/o in an accident. We were terribly heartbroken because we had met the kid a bunch of times before since she was a single mother and sometimes had to take him here.
As retribution contribution we singed some off our paid days off so she could take some time, she came back two months after.
I’ve been working here since I turned 17 yo and when I was 19 we had a change of boss, she basically made Mother’s Day, Christmas and New year’s something ”we all deserved” and not only the people with kids.
She said that if people had kids then we obviously had a mother and we deserved to spend the day with her however she made the compromise to sent the list of names a month before so people could trade them.
She still wants this day off.
Well aside from some guy (who already gave his day) I’m the only non-mother who has it. My mother’s still alive, but I went no contact with her a few years ago, either way I think it’ll be nice to have a day off to prepare for my finals.
Some of my mom coworkers asked for the day and I politely said no. Linda approached me and said that this will be her first Mother’s Day without her son, so she wanted to ask me if I could trade her day with her.
Again, I said no and told her how sorry I was, she said thanks and went back to her space.
That didn’t go over very well…
Then, one of the other moms (who already traded her day with one of the guys) said I was an ******* for not giving it to her since I don’t even talk to my mom anymore and just for that, I don’t deserve it. I asked why didn’t she gave her day off and her answer was that she’s ”a mother of 5”.
Some are agreeing that I should let her have it because she lost her child but some other (including my boss) said that I’m entitled to keep it and should do it because I’ll be using the day for something important too.
Linda has been silent since she asked (last Wednesday) and my other coworker is calling me an *******, so I’m not sure.”
Here’s what readers had to say about this.
This person said she’s NTA.
Another individual agreed.
This Reddit user shared their thoughts.
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Another person didn’t hold back.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a group of employees who go over their manager’s head when he insists a new process is better than the old one.
This reader had a lot to say.
This student sympathized with her grieving coworker but chose to keep the day off she had fairly received for studying.
Commenters felt Linda handled the refusal respectfully, while the other coworker had no right to shame someone for setting a reasonable boundary.
The loudest critic was strangely unwilling to surrender her own holiday.
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