Childless employee refuses to swap Christmas leave with coworker who has kids; gets called ‘selfish’ by the most unexpected person
In the post, a 25-year-old woman explained that she had just passed probation at a new job. According to his company’s policy, first-line employees are given first priority when choosing Christmas leave, which meant that he was officially approved to take Christmas Day off.
A co-worker who had children then approached her and asked her to change her leave dates so she could spend Christmas with her children. The poster said he didn’t celebrate Christmas and had no special plans, but he still didn’t want to give up something he had fairly earned. He politely declined this request.
After this, her co-worker became “moody” around her, creating tension at work. The situation worsened when the employee’s sister, who had always supported her child-free lifestyle, called her “selfish” for not giving a day off to a working mother.
Feeling confused and pressured from both sides, the woman turned to the AITA community to ask if refusing to trade made her the bad person in the situation.
What did the Reddit community say?
The topic quickly exploded, with thousands of comments being made and eventually locked by moderators for rules violations.
Majority called OP “selfish”
The best comments suggested that, although the employee was technically within his or her rights, the refusal was unnecessarily rude.
One highly upvoted reaction summed up the dominant sentiment: “If you can do something to help someone with minimal disruption to your own life and you choose not to, you’re an asshole.”
Another user compared OP’s stance to everyday petty selfishness: “OP is the person who left their car behind my car at the grocery store.”
Others said the rejection showed a lack of empathy: “Reddit often gets stuck on the idea that ‘you don’t owe anyone anything.’ Sure, but when you can help someone without paying anything, choosing not to makes you an asshole.
Some defended the employee
A smaller but prominent group argued that annual leave was distributed fairly and should not be tied to parental status.
One user wrote: “OP’s scheduled days off are days he will use, whether important or not.”
Another noted that resentment often grows when parents expect preferential treatment: “This subordinate hates children, but she also hates being in charge. A day off isn’t automatically more valuable just because someone has a child.”
