This is the type of story that is sure to inspire widespread debate, as it touches on a topic that is near and dear to all of our hearts: vacation time!
The mother that you are about to meet believes that her request for time off on Christmas is more important than her coworker’s. Her reasoning is simple: She has children to spend time with and her coworker does not.
“Ok, I feel terrible about this,” the mother wrote in a recent post that she made on the Mumsnet parenting site. She let readers of the site know what she was dealing with.
The dilemma is easy enough to understand. She and the coworker have both asked for Christmas Day off. Their manager has decided that only one of them can have the day off and that they need to sort this matter out among themselves.
“I have asked her to withdraw her request as she and her husband who have no kids normally go to her husband’s parents on Christmas Day, but they also go every week so it’s not like they never see them,” she said. These are the grounds for her belief that she deserves the day off, while her coworker does not. She claims that they get along well but we are sure that’s over with now.
“I, on the other hand, have a four-year-old Autistic [sic] son,” she continued. She went on to say that the child’s nursery school would be closed on this day. From there, she is quite presumptuous about the coworker’s personal life. This is where any sympathy we might have felt for her goes right out the window.
“She and her husband could still be at his parents for lunchtime whereas because I am a single mama and the nurseries are closed I have no one to watch my son,” she says. “Yes, I could pay someone but it would be extremely expensive,” the woman wrote, finding a way to get around an obvious solution. “I do feel bad asking her to do this but if she won’t then I’m going to have no choice but to leave my job.”
We are not on her side here and we will leave you with a rational comment from one concerned reader. “I don’t believe having kids should entitle you to preferential time off at Christmas. It’s an important time for many people. If you get on well with her you could ask given the other difficulties you would have, but if you’ve previously had xmases off and she hasn’t, then it’s probably her turn.” Amen!