A post about an employee who quit their job after being told they can no longer take Thanksgiving vacation days they'd booked has gone viral on Reddit, where it's received 147,000 upvotes.
In a post shared on Reddit's antiwork subforum, user bearandthebunny shared a screenshot of a text exchange with their employer, known as Matt. The user was allegedly told via text that they "need" to work on Thanksgiving Day and the next day because of "a scheduling nightmare," since another worker (Megan) would be gone.
When the user replied, "I'm already approved to take off that weekend, 24-27," Matt wrote, "Things have changed, I've scheduled you for morning on the 24th and afternoon on the 25th."
The user then said, "I'm not coming in on Thanksgiving," to which Matt allegedly replied, "It's non negotiable, there's no other options. If you want to keep working here, I need you to work the 24th and 25th."
The original poster replied, "Guess I quit then, I won't be coming in tonight [the peace sign with two fingers]," to which Matt said, "Please call me now."
Among the top reasons why people quit their jobs in 2021, "not enough flexibility to choose when to put in hours" was cited by nearly a quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed for a Pew Research Center study published in March 2022. Other top reasons were "feeling disrespected at work" (35 percent) and working too many hours (20 percent).
Was the Boss Being Unfair?
Joe Mull, an author and the host of the Boss Better Now podcast and founder of the BossBetter Leadership Academy, told Newsweek the employer's actions in the post—canceling his employee's vacation at the last minute and "mandating work"—are one example of the "entrenched, normalized inhumane treatment" that has been "present in workplaces for years and that workers are rejecting in droves."
Brooks Scott, an executive coach and interpersonal communications expert, said, "Yes, but this is more than a question of fairness. It's about right and wrong under your own company policies. The manager is trying to enact a weak coverall company policy that in the end provides even less structure and even more chaos. "
Thomas Roulet, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge who teaches human resources, career management and leadership at the Judge Business School, said the employer's behavior was "unfair and risky."
Employers should be wary of frustrating their workers in the current context where they're already "fairly demotivated and have multiple opportunities to leave and find other more attractive jobs," he said.
Rash Decision to Quit on the Spot?
Mull said the employee "didn't make a rash decision," explaining that the user "finally had enough of this kind of treatment, which falls into the category of dehumanization."
Dehumanization is "the perception and treatment of people in ways that ignore and diminish their intrinsic worth as humans," Mull said. In a work setting, this occurs when "workers are treated not as people but as a commodity."
In the Reddit post, "the company's priorities were more important than the employee's. This is dehumanization," according to Mull.
Scott said it's not that the employee was forced to quit because they had no choice. Instead, they "chose to exercise their right after realizing there was no benefit in doing more for a company that would not do the very least for you."
Darcy Eikenberg, a credentialed career and leadership coach and author of Red Cape Rescue: Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job, told Newsweek that the employee should not have quit with a text message. "They should have held to their agreed time off and let the manager continue to problem-solve."
"By quitting vs. waiting to see if someone would actually fire them on Monday...they lose any access to unemployment or severance benefits," she said. "There's nothing to be gained by reacting instead of taking a beat and addressing it when cooler heads prevail."
Roulet said: "The employee's rash decision can be better understood in the context of 'the great resignation' and 'quiet quitting'—two buzzwords that still reflect the current and broad lack of engagement and motivation of the workforce in an era of high uncertainty and inflation."
Scott said: "More must be done to protect employees because not everyone is in a position to quit their job on the spot. It's a right to be able to do that, and it's also a privilege.
"But if we can't find a way to develop laws against these practices, companies are still going to see more and more employees choosing themselves over their company," he said.
Could This Have Been Handled Differently?
Eikenberg said that, from the start, the conversation should have been done by phone instead of text.
She said: "Many of us have never been taught any frameworks for when to use digital communication and when to have a conversation." So, increasingly, "the medium and the message get disconnected in the workplace often."
Eikenberg said a live conversation initiated by the employer could have started with gaining an understanding and then "making an ask, not a demand" to the employee.
The career coach said a live exchange "could have resulted in a joint conversation to help solve the problem," such as the employee coming in for a few hours or the user reminding the manager that someone else might be more flexible.
"In the end, if a team is set up in a way that one person's availability makes or breaks the company, then that's a bigger problem and both manager and employees should go find new jobs," Eikenberg said.
There Are Always 'Bigger Fish'
Several Redditors showed support for the original poster.
In a comment that got over 11,000 upvotes, NumbSurprise suggested that when the employer said "Please call me now," the original poster should have said, "No. Whatever you want to say to me, you can put it in writing."
User grinberB wrote: "'Non-negotiable' guess again, f***o," in a comment that got 9,400 upvotes.
User tooOddtooCare replied: "Actually he [the employer] was correct. There was no negotiation [winking face emoji]," in a comment that received 5,000 upvotes.
MysticYogiP said: "There's always a bigger fish."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment.
Do you have a similar dilemma? Let us know via life@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured in Newsweek.
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