Do you like doing good deeds? Me too. It feels nice to sometimes be on the giving end of the whole “my faith in humanity has been restored” thing, instead of receiving, or, more generally, losing more and more of that faith every time you open a news site.
Unfortunately, not everyone is like you or me – some people just don’t care about being do-gooders, even if it would take them next to zero effort to make someone’s day or even their week a hundred times brighter — just like this poster who wouldn’t swap X-mas leave with a mom for no good reason. Go figure.
More info:Reddit
A woman caught the ire of both her family and the internet after categorically refusing to swap Christmas leave with a coworker for seemingly no reason
Image credits:RF._.studio (not the actual photo)
The place where the poster works gives new hires priority for their annual Christmas leave
Image credits:Any Lane (not the actual photo)
Although the poster in her own words “doesn’t care” about Christmas leave, she refused to swap it with a mom who would rather spend the time with her kids
Image credits:Jonathan Borba (not the actual photo)
Her refusing to swap is even stranger after she mentions that she won’t be seeing family during those days and will simply spend the time without her phone
Image credits:u/Weak_Ordinary_9324
If you came here looking for a happy-go-lucky Christmas story, I implore you to turn back while you still have hope! On the other hand, if you’re here to read some slightly upsetting Christmas-themed drama, you’re right where you should be, so hunker down, ideally with a tall drink of something festive.
The poster of this story had briskly passed thecrossroadsstage of any interpersonal conflict and firmly halted at the“wait, am I the bad guy?”stop.
You see, she was a new employee at her job, where they give new hires their first Christmas off. All was well and good until a couple of days later, a coworker came up to her, asking if she’d be available to swap leaves as she’s got kids and would like to spend the holidays with them.
The post’s author, admittedly, has no plans for her days off, won’t be visiting family, and, in her own words, “doesn’t celebrate Christmas and doesn’t care if she works Christmas or not.”
Pretty predictably, that reply earned the poster over 1.5k downvotes. Honestly, it’s quite impressive to be able to arrive at an opinion so grossly despised, so she has that going, at least.
It appears as if the poster really saw nothing wrong whatsoever with this move until her sister who has kids said that it’s “a bit selfish,” empathizing with the poor mom who will have to work Christmas while her kids spend it without her. Many pointed at OP’s weirdness related to her mentioning the fact that she’s childfree and so she shouldn’t be forced to “give up” her time off just because of that – which seems very strange and spiteful when you consider that it’s not about the kids, but her literally not caring about Christmas celebrations.
Image credits:SHVETS production (not the actual photo)
With all this in mind, I’m certain that every budding business owner and manager has had to make some difficult decisions regarding giving people leave in their time. This is likely especially true if they’re an empathetic person and they feel as if some people are more “deserving” of specific days off.
At the end of the day, as a manager, you have to be consistent, so if you do take measures such as this, make sure they are applied equally to everyone in your team, lest you run the risk of people becoming inflamed at others being given preferential treatment.
In all likelihood, you, dear reader, aren’t a manager, so this whole story isn’t a question of correct management practices, but rather of pretty simple morals – if you don’t give a single lick about the holidays, why just not swap with the poor parent, even if there will be a tiny administrative headache? It’s likely that HR will take care of it anyway.
This was the train of thought for most of the commenters on the author’s posts, as she was decisively voted to be the jerk in this situation. Perhaps there is more to this story than has been already said or meets the eye, but with the poster’s account being suspended for one reason or another we may never know. A true Christmas jerk-holeness mystery.
Parenting
