Playing favorites at work is a surefire shortcut to alienating your most talented employees. If you consistently put one group’s needs above another group’s, you’ll end up with a toxic workplace full of friction, resentment, and infighting. You can tell a lot about the quality of your manager by what kind of system they promote. And research shows that childfree workers are tired of always covering for their colleagues with children. But working parents have it tough, too.
One man went viral after revealing how he got in trouble because he took time off from work instead of setting all of his plans aside to cover for a colleague who is a working mom. This started a huge discussion about unfairness at work and parental entitlement. You’ll find the full story, an important update, and the internet’s reactions below.
Playing favorites at work and discriminating against some of your employees never ends well
This worker shared how he got called out by his manager for not canceling his weekend trip to cover for a colleague with kids
Working parents deal with plenty of worries, too
It is entirely reasonable to give working parents more flexibility to account for their new family responsibilities. However, this does not mean that you can force your childfree employees to cover for them. It will only lead to resentment. The thinking goes, why should they do favors for people who have no intention of ever doing the same for them?
What’s needed is better management and a fairer system with clear guidelines on how the company can support parents without placing an unfair burden on the rest of the team. You might be the best parent in the world, and your colleagues can understand where you’re coming from. But they won’t like you much if you constantly increase their workload and make it tough for them to take any time off.
Healthy relationships (work, platonic, romantic, familial, etc.) are a two-way street. If one person puts in all the effort but the other selfishly focuses only on what they need, you’re stuck in a toxic situation. And the healthy thing to do would be to set better boundaries or to remove yourself from the situation entirely.
The reality is that both childfree employees and working parents have it tough. There’s a lot of tension between these two groups of people in workplaces.
A study conducted by ResumeLab found that a whopping 72% of respondents noticed that childfree workers were mistreated simply because they do not have children. At the same time, 67% of people observed that parents were mistreated because they do have kids.
“Parents strive to maintain the balance between being productive employees and responsible parents. They still worry that employers may not extend their contracts or fire them because of their family responsibilities. But non-parents face difficulties balancing their job (or two jobs) and family too.”
Overall, many people feel that employees with kids get special treatment at work
The study also found that 74% of respondents believed that workers with kids are treated better in the workplace. According to sociologist Amy Blackstone, there are very few things that protect childfree employees’ time to care for themselves and their families and enjoy work-life balance.
The respondents reported that they have seen the following things happen at work to employees who do not have children:
- Denied time off (63%)
- Had to work overtime (69%)
- Were given a greater workload (70%)
Furthermore, the study found that 85% of people believe that workers with children have priority when planning both vacations and days off. 87% of respondents said that working parents have more benefits. And 81% said that, in their opinion, employers see child-related absences at work as more important than the reasons given by childfree staff.
What’s the situation like at your job, Pandas? Do you see examples of blatant favoritism, or are things more or less fair in your workplace? Have you ever been asked to cover for or take on more work because one of your colleagues had urgent parental responsibilities? Meanwhile, if you’re a working parent yourself, what are the main challenges you face? Who are the most difficult coworkers you've ever had to deal with? Share your experiences in the comments.
The employee then revealed even more details in the comments of his post
The topic caused a fiery discussion online. Here's what people said
The work drama did not end there. The worker had a spicy update to share
The author then interacted with some readers in the comments once again
Many readers were furious after reading what happened and shared their perspectives in the comments
