Mom Asks If She’s A Jerk For Asking Childfree Coworker To Withdraw Her Christmas Holiday Request

The holidays are a special time of the year, and a huge part of what makes it so is the people that we get to spend it with.

However, a parent who goes on the British parenting forum ‘Mumsnet’ by the nickname Jessiejuju doesn’t know if she’s going to be able to do that.

Her manager said that either she or her colleague have to work on Christmas day and it was for the two women to decide who gets to do it.

But Jessiejuju confessed to the internet that it’s a hill she is willing to die on.

This mom wants to take Christmas Day off, so she asked her childfree coworker to cover her shift

Image credits: Liza Summer

But the woman has already planned to spend it with her family

Image credits: Anastasia Shuraeva

Image credits: Jessiejuju

While most of us spend Christmas Day excitedly opening presents, overindulging, and catching up with relatives, in the UK, around one million people are hard at work, just like Jessiejuju.

Usually, they’re carers and nurses, with over a quarter of a million Brits in these professions clocking in on 25 December.

Proportionally, though, those by far most likely to be working on Christmas Day are the clergy, as masses flock to services up and down the country. If anything, the percentage of them working is surprisingly low, as only one in two reported that they were working on Christmas day. But this number is still high when you compare it with the UK average of less than one in 35 working among those employed

It’s worth highlighting that UK employees are actually allowed time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant (a dependant is considered to be a spouse, partner, child, grandchild, parent, or someone who depends on receiving their care).

The government permits “a reasonable amount of time off” to handle these situations, and there’s no set amount, as the conditions depend on each individual case. For example, if someone’s child falls ill, they can take time off to go to the doctor and make care arrangements.

However, workers cannot have time off if they knew about a situation beforehand. Which, judging from the post, is the case with Jessiejuju.

The mom should be eligible to take unpaid parental leave, though, to look after her child’s welfare. Employee rights (like the right to pay, holidays, and returning to a job) are protected during parental leave.

From what we’ve gathered so far, it sounds like it’s the manager is the one who needs to solve this conflict instead of stepping away when they’re needed the most.

As her story was going viral, the mom provided more information in the comments

Here’s what people said about the whole ordeal

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