Worker Refuses To Accept Co-Worker's 'No' To Covering Her Shift & Switches It Anyway After Their Boss 'Forgot' To Put In Her Day Off
"No" is a complete sentence.
fizkes | Shutterstock Most of us at one time or another have worked a job, say in retail or at a restaurant, where it's up to us to find a replacement for ourselves if we need a day off by switching shifts with a coworker. It's not a great system, but most of the time it works out with a bit of maneuvering — or targeted begging.
But what happens when you're in a predicament and no one will help you out? A story about this dilemma circulating on social media highlights just how unfair this system really is, even if it's been the standard for ages.
A worker forced her co-worker to take her shift after she repeatedly said no.
If you've done time in retail, food service, or other fields where switching shifts is standard practice, you might have had this happen to you a time or two — you desperately need a day off for an important event or to deal with some pressing business, and nobody will help you out. It's one of the absolute worst parts of working in places like this.
If you're a normal person, you suck it up and go to work, but one worker named Rachel had a far simpler solution — she simply refused to accept no for an answer.
The coworker she did this to submitted screenshots of their interaction to the aptly named X account "[Eff] You I Quit," which chronicles workplace news and horror stories. It's pretty much a masterclass in audacity on the part of not just Rachel, but their manager too.
@[eff]youiquit | X
When their manager forgot to handle Rachel's time-off request, Rachel begged her co-worker to cover her shift.
A tale as old as time for anyone who's ever waited tables. "I have a big favor to ask," Rachel texted her coworker. "Can you pleasssse take my shift tomorrow at 5:15?"
She explained that she had a big family surprise party to go to that she'd told their manager, Linda, about an entire month ago.
"But she forgot," Rachel went on to say. Unfortunately, the co-worker wasn't able to pick up the shift, but Rachel was undeterred and began negotiating.
She offered to take two of the co-worker's shifts as a reward — which really isn't much of a reward, considering it means she'd missed a day's pay, but whatever. The co-worker reiterated that she wasn't able to take the shift. But Rachel refused to take "no" for an answer.
When the co-worker continued to refuse, Rachel lied to their manager and said she'd accepted the shift.
When the co-worker kept reiterating that she wasn't available, Rachel then demanded an explanation. "Why not?" she asked. "What do you have?" Um, none of your business, Rachel! She then resorted to begging and pleading about how important the event was.
@[eff]youiquit | X
The co-worker, understandably perturbed, simply resorted to not responding. "No" is a complete sentence, after all, and while most of us try to do our coworkers solids when we can, sometimes you just have to stick to your guns about your day off, right?
Not in Rachel's world. "I told Linda you agreed and wrote your name down for me," she texted. "I swear I will make it all good." She'd better because she's now put her co-worker in a position to get fired if she doesn't show up to a shift she never agreed to take.
The worker is obviously way out of line. But the real problem here is the manager and the unfair policies of workplaces like this.
There's no defending what Rachel did. But what stuck out most to people online was the situation that created this problem in the first place: Linda's incompetence and inability to follow through on a policy that shouldn't exist in the first place.
![screenshot of tweet from @[eff]youiquit](/sites/default/files/image_blog/2024-07/server-forced-her-coworker-to-take-her-shift-fyiq-tweet.png "Worker Forced Her Coworker To Take Her Shift After She Said No")
@[eff]youiquit / X
If Rachel already asked for the day off a month in advance, why should it be her job to fix Linda's mistake? As one X user aptly put it, "That policy just turned this entire workplace into a toxic cesspool," adding, "Seriously, who does this?"
It's just one example of the ways workplaces like restaurants, retail stores, and other shift-based jobs need to change — and a prime example of why these toxic industries are still suffering from debilitating staffing shortages.
Americans working these jobs are already often forced to depend on the kindness of strangers in the form of tipping to pay their bills. To also be expected to prioritize their jobs over their personal lives to a degree virtually nobody else is ever asked to do is downright unreasonable.
But at the very least, if you're going to be a manager? Don't be a Linda. You need to manage! And when you make mistakes you need to handle them, not pawn them off on your employees. That should go without saying — no matter what industry you're in.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.