In a perfect world, or even just a world where people are considerate of each other, co-workers often work together in an effort to help each other. In an office that must be manned all the time, Jewish or Muslim employees may volunteer to work on Christmas Day so their Christian co-workers can be guaranteed to have the day off. Someone may be willing to switch a shift so their co-worker can pick up family from the airport or go to the show they have tickets for.
But ours isn’t a perfect world; workplaces aren’t always idealistic, and sometimes the concept of “fairness” goes out the window. Cases in point:
- That’s what happens when bosses bother vacationing employees
- They reneged his vacation approval. Here’s what happened next
- What happened when she didn’t want to “donate” her PTO time
Not long ago, we learned about a woman named Evie who had her own workplace dilemma regarding vacation time. She posted about the situation on TikTok.
Evie was relatively new to her workplace, but she had relocated to work there and it was very important to her that she go home for Christmas, to see her family and friends for the first time in months.
“I was homesick,” Evie said.
She had put in the vacation request several months ahead of time and everything was approved. But that didn’t seem to matter to one coworker, who Evie called “Karen.” It also didn’t seem to matter to Evie and Karen’s boss.
Evie said that she and Karen “had gotten along perfectly fine” the whole time she had worked at the office. But that all changed once Karen decided that she wanted to take time off for Christmas, too.
Now, you’d think that since Evie made the vacation request first and had gotten approval for the time off, that Karen was out of luck, right? Nope. Apparently at this workplace, people who have kids are favored over those without. And since Karen’s plans involved her two kids, things went south really fast, and Evie’s boss, Bob, asked her to “find it in her heart” to cancel her vacation.
“It’s the week before the break,” Evie said, “and I am so excited.” She continued that she had already packed her suitcase and everything was all set to go. “My family’s expecting me, I have friends who are expecting me, I’m expecting me!” She was really looking forward to the trip.
That’s when Bob called her into his office, 2 days before her vacation was scheduled to start.
Evie continued, “He’s like, ‘Hey, Evie, listen, I know you were planning to take off for vacation, but I talked to Karen, and she decided that she really wants to take her kids to Disney World over the break.'”
By Tom Arthur (originally posted to Flickr as Strain!) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
“He was like, ‘I was just really hoping that you could find it in your heart to let her take your week so she can spend some time with her children.'” Evie was shocked, but added that since Bob also has kids, “he was, like, totally on her side about it.”
Evie was, essentially, “No way.”
“I was like, you know what, Bob?,” she joked, “I’ve searched my heart, and it turns out that there is nothing in my heart that’s going to make me willing to give her my week.”
When Evie asked Bob if Karen had made advance plans for her Disney World trip, he told her “‘No, she literally talked to me about it this morning.'” Given that it was “48 hours before the break’s supposed to start,” Evie said, “I’m sorry but I’m not giving up my week.”
“You go tell her”
Bob’s response was crazy. According to Evie, “He was like, ‘Okay, well, you’re going to have to go out there, and you’re going to have to tell Karen that she can’t take her kids to Disney World. You’re going to have to tell her.'”
Of course, that’s wildly inappropriate – a manager doesn’t turn one worker onto another, regardless of the circumstances. But Bob apparently picked the wrong employee to try to play passive-aggressive games with.
“I was like, okay,” Evie said. “I walked right out of his office, walked right up to her desk, and I was like, listen, Karen, I just talked to Bob… I’m sorry… I’m sure you can take your kids to Disney World at another time.”
Not surprisingly, it didn’t go over well.
“She got so mad. Like, the entitlement was unreal,” Evie said.
She then went into Karen’s temper tantrum about how she, “needed to spend time with my children” and how Evie couldn’t possibly understand. “‘They need to see their mother,'” Karen told her.
Evie tried to reason with her.
“I hear you… I haven’t seen my family in a year,” she told her. “Like, you live with your kids. You see them every day.”
Cue the tears
But instead of understanding, Karen burst into tears. “‘You have no idea what it’s like to have children,'” she kept saying. But it didn’t work. Evie joked, “You know what, Karen? That’s probably true. But I am about to experience this vacation. See you in a week.”
Here’s the whole video:
@evmariexo #stitch with @Callie #childfree #childfreetiktok #childfreebychoice #childfreemillennial #rantswithevie #greenscreenvideo
Our take on it
Joe and I live just a few miles from Walt Disney World and know that the week between Christmas and New Year’s is THE most busy week of the year. So I just gotta say that IF this had worked out in Karen’s favor, I’m pretty sure it would have been a crappy vacation for them.
That being said, the craziness of Bob being OK with Evie having to cancel her vacation time during the holidays, just 48 hours in advance, after requesting it months ahead of time, simply because Karen has children and she doesn’t?!?! No. Just…no.
Her video has over 10 million views (it looks like it’s about a year and a half old) and over 50k replies…most of which agree that Karen and Bob were off their rockers.
Evie did say in the beginning of the video that it was a place she “used” to work. It’s good she got out of that toxic workplace.
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