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The woman found out something shocking about the employee's 'sick' daughter.
By Sanika Nalgirkar — Written on Jul 17, 2022
A woman feels conflicted about not giving her employee a day off to take care of her sick daughter.
As a result, she went to Reddit’s AITA (r/AmItheA--hole) thread to ask people what she should do.
The woman mentioned that her employee’s daughter has cancer.
At first, the woman denied her employee, Kate’s, request to get a day off.
She mentioned that Kate had already requested to have all her days off in the future.
However, Kate wanted one more day off so the woman refused. She offered Kate to switch it up with another of her off days but she declined.
The next day, Kate stormed into her office and broke down while telling the woman that her 7-year-old daughter has cancer.
The woman wrote, “The day she requested off was a chemo day for her daughter and Kate’s husband couldn’t take the day off due to [a] project he was working on.”
Kate kept telling her how much her daughter has suffered and how she will have to redo her school year.
After hearing this, the woman felt bad and told Kate she will work something out.
She wanted to do something for Kate’s daughter, however, found something shocking.
Kate’s daughter doesn’t have cancer.
As the woman wanted to give Kate’s daughter a health care basket, she went to her son who was in the same class as Kate’s daughter.
She asked him what some of her favorite snacks were and whether he knew about her disease.
She wrote, “My son told me Kate’s daughter is not sick, has never missed a day at school…He even proceeded to tell me they actually talk quite a lot at school and have mutual friends.”
The woman was angry to find out that Kate might have told such a serious lie for a day off.
She wanted to decline her day off right then but her husband convinced her to calm down.
After thinking about it for a while, she felt a bit confused about whether to believe her son or her employee.
Redditors offered her advice to get to the bottom of this issue.
Internet users claimed that the woman hadn’t been wrong for not giving the employee the day off, but they mentioned that the woman should confront her employee about this.
One user wrote, “Give her the day off unpaid. And if she is willing to submit paperwork such as insurance claim/receipts/doctor's note/phone number, etc for the chemo appointment, you can give her an emergency sick day.”
Some people also mentioned that solely believing the words of her 7-year-old son might not be the best idea.
“Kids will be kids. Yes, there’s a chance even your precious little angel might lie or simply be misinformed," one person wrote. "You really need more evidence than the word of your 7-year-old son before you accuse an employee of faking their kid’s cancer.”
Another person commented, “My son is also 7, and he told me his best friend in school moved away. Imagine my surprise when I drop him off at school and there is his friend, and my son simply says, ‘Oh, I guess he's still here.’”
Sanika Nalgirkar is a News & Entertainment Writer based in Seattle. She has a master's degree in Creative Writing. See more of her writing on her website.