A man took to Reddit’s r/antiwork, a subreddit where users can vent about work-related issues, to share a text he sent to the group chat at his former workplace. Apparently his boss, who had worked for five years, fired him the day he returned to work after his son was born.
After the new father was fired, he told his coworkers how badly he was treated.
In his letter, the man described his former boss as “narcissistic” and “ungrateful” and said he was glad he was fired so he could spend more time with his son. He warned old co-workers that their boss would never value them or their work, and not to waste any more of their time working with him.
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Many people found a Reddit user’s experience with their “ungrateful” employer relatable.
The post resonated with other users on the subreddit, who shared some of their own stories about bosses who didn’t honor their requests for parental leave.
“My husband’s friend hasn’t taken vacation or sick days for 15 years. His son was born and was having problems and he asked for a second week off and they told him if he did it again he would be fired. It made me so angry. He quit and found a job,” one user said. New and thankfully.” The original poster replied, “I have never and will never put work in front of my family.”
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One user said their employer asked them for proof that they had a child when they requested a week’s leave in advance and wondered if this would have happened if he had been the one to have the child. Another user replied: “Don’t worry, women are also required to provide proof that they are giving birth. One of my friends needed to provide a medical note when she was off work due to a miscarriage.”
The post’s comments were full of people sharing their worst experiences with employers.
Other stories in the comments included people who were dedicated workers and went above and beyond at their jobs, even getting fired for things like requesting schedule changes or paternity leave.
“I got kicked out two days before Christmas because I wanted to leave early on a day I wasn’t scheduled to be there so I could attend a family Christmas party,” one commenter shared. “The exciting thing is that my wife was six months pregnant with my first child.”
In the words of one user, their takeaway was that “Employers treat hard workers like trash…I’m not going to work to death for an employer that will replace me the moment they find it worthwhile to do so, so why sacrifice my well” -Con for them ?
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America is the only developed country in the world that does not offer paid parental leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act provides 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave for most full-time employees and provides protection from employer retaliation. However, when Reddit users pointed this out, the man who originally made the post explained that he lives in North Carolina, where employees can be terminated without cause. However, several Reddit users recommended that he talk to a lawyer to see if he could file a case against his former employer.
