Everyone should be treated the same at work. Sounds like a simple idea that most people can get behind, right? However, when you expand on that and mention that all workers should be treated equally, whether they have children or not, the conversation can get heated.
One redditor, u/Working_Falcon5384, shared their ‘unpopular opinion’ that every employee should be treated the same, regardless of the children they (don’t) have, on the popular r/antiwork subreddit. Their post quickly went viral and inspired other Reddit users to share their experiences of how having children can grant someone privileges while being ‘childfree’ can actually harm you professionally and financially, depending on your employer’s approach.
We’ve collected these stories for you to read so you can understand how workplace inequality functions when someone high up thinks that you don’t have a family if you don’t have kids yet. If you’ve ever seen someone being treated unfairly because they don’t have munchkins or have experienced it yourself, let us know in the comments.
#1
I was once denied time off on Christmas Day that I requested months in advance so I could travel home to my family.
The manager looked me straight in the eyes and said “you don’t need Christmas Day off, you don’t have kids, you don’t have a real family!”
I was 25 and wanted to go home to see my parents and siblings. Not having kids doesn’t mean you don’t have a family. F**k that mindset.
Image source: KylosLeftHand, S&B Vonlanthen
#2
I am an essential employee and it’s always so frustrating to here people complain about so and so taking Christmas off because they don’t have kids. They still have family and regardless, if it’s their turn to get Christmas off they don’t need to justify it to anybody. They can sit at home by themselves if they want.
Image source: Rickyv490
#3
Me – “ I need to leave right at 5pm today I have a previous engagement to get too”
Employer – “ oh yeah? Did you buy a new video game? Lol “
Me – “you let Chris leave early yesterday, I just need to be out the door right at 5pm, not even early”
Employer – “ He had to pick his kids up from school, you can wait 30 minutes…”
Every job I’ve ever worked has cut SO much slack for parents, and the single and childless staff have had to suck it up – it so bulls**t. Whenever there is a snow day every parent calls in sick, and if a single person happens to call in that day they get accused of being hungover or faking. Not cool bro.
Image source: DarkintoLeaves, NeONBRAND
#4
I was a department supervisor at a large department store and would always be scheduled the closing shift every holiday. I never had any of the major holidays off because I was the only one who didnt have kids. One year I put my foot down and demanded they give me Halloween off. I had to fight with the store manager, it helped I had kept every schedule and could show I closed every holiday for the prior three years. So they gave it to me to be off and when the schedule was posted one of the supes with kids came and asked me to take her shift. I told her no and that I had requested it off and she gave me s**t because “I’m going to miss out on taking my kids trick or treating.” I still told her no and left, a bit later I saw the schedule had been changed. That person told the manager I agreed to work for her, when I went to the boss and pointed out I had argued for the day off she told me “it’s just one day….” So they took my off day from me because the “parent” bitched until she got her way. I ended up turning off my phone and not going in, they wrote me up for it but oh well.
Image source: improbablynotyou, Clark Street Mercantile
#5
Years ago, as a childless employee I was not permitted to use a week of my earned sick leave (I had hundred of hours bc I was never sick) to go home and care for my mother who had had surgery. Yet employees with a kid were allowed to use their sick leave to take their kid to a doctor anytime it sneezed. I’m still bitter about that.
Image source: Herbalmist73
#6
I just say I have kids. It’s no one f**kn business. You’re there to do your 8 and that’s it. I’m not a person who wants to be friends at work, I wanna be able to come in, not feel like I have to punch you in the face, work well as a team and punch out. Anytime I’ve ever disclosed I’m a childless single female I’ve always been stuck on later shifts or being last. F that.
Image source: Competitive-Ad6934
#7
I work in the games industry. When we were crunching, my manager (who was also sexually harassing me on the regular) would leave at his usual time because kids. Since I didn’t have a heavy workload, I went home at my usual time one day.
My manager pulled me aside the next day to tell me I couldn’t leave until the end of crunch day (11PM), even if I had no work to do, because it made morale poor. When I asked him why he was leaving early, he said, “Oh well I have kids.”
So I got to work from 9AM-11PM every day for months while my boss peaced out at the usual time every day. This was also while I was on immunosuppressants, which made me fatigued on a good day. I remember my boyfriend telling me one night, while I was crying from pain of sitting in a chair all day as well as lack of sleep, that my job was going to kill me. I think that’s about when I hit a breaking point.
Oh, and did I mention we worked for s**t salary and most salaried tech workers aren’t owed overtime pay?
I quit a few months later.
Image source: JoanOfSarcasm, Damir Kopezhanov
#8
One of my former employers granted a colleague of mine permission to work from home so they could spend time with their dog who was battling terminal cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. At that stage working from home was rarely granted.
I do think employees who make other life choices should be treated the same and should be allowed time off for their hobbies / other commitments.
The problem isn’t your co-workers with children.
I once asked my colleague to tell me when all the school holidays were and to make sure she put in her annual leave before me because I had zero intention of taking time off during that time.
She was used to fighting with her colleagues over getting school holidays off.
In my country we get 4 weeks of annual leave + 2 weeks of sick leave + 1 week (total) of public holidays. We could also purchase additional annual leave (it meant our salary was just adjusted without us permanently changing our employment status to part-time) & we could also work flex time – which meant we could take a lot of time off work if we banked additional hours & purchased annual leave.
Your problem isn’t your co-workers – it’s a system that pits you against each other.
Join a freaking union.
Image source: Intrepid-Luck2021, Thought Catalog
#9
At my old job, the entire team but 2 of us had kids. All of the parents got to take the last 2 weeks off as vacation and the employees without kids had to work. One of the reasons I quit.
Image source: Askew_2016
#10
At a former job I worked with two nurses. My supervisor was always fair about rotating who got to take the week off between Xmas and NY. Butt that didn’t stop one of them complaining to me every third year when it was mine to take off. I would point out that I also had kids, but that didn’t fly, because her son was in daycare, and they were closed that week. My kids weren’t. I never let her browbeat me into giving it up, because I knew she would want it off every time.
Image source: HRzNightmare, iron Guillaume
#11
You won’t get any disagreements from me. I’ve had bosses use the “but you don’t have kids” excuse on me too many times when they wanted to wring extra time out of me
Image source: SqueeksDad
#12
I’ve worked in public education (teaching) where staff with children got to arrive late, leave early, or even get scheduling priorities….to make matters worse, they were often our least prepared, most ineffective teachers (in this case).
Image source: dessalines1804
#13
I am the only one in my office with younger children. I often pick up shifts no one else wants to make up for the days I need off for my children. Because my husband does not work weekends, I will pick up weekend shifts with no problem. I have a union job for local government so we are not open on Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc but I do often need a day off to attend performances, games, conferences, etc. This arrangement works for our office.
Image source: aannoonn2021
#14
It’s the reverse at my work. They’ll promote people without kids because of the perceptions that they have little to no excuse to say no to staying back to get something done. Which is a joke. People, no matter of their family arrangements, should be dumped with late minute unimportant work demands.
Image source: plannertown
#15
In the military, they give you a pay bump if you have a kid. Yuck.
Image source: SlicerStopSlicing
#16
I agree. We always had an agreement at places I’ve worked with people that had kids that they didn’t have to work Christmas day (I work in hospitality) but it was just that, an agreement, was never enforced by management.
Image source: TheVantal, Marvin Meyer
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