Employee refuses to give up their approved PTO when office parents try to guilt trip them into accommodating spring break: 'I'm not giving up my time off just because I don't have kids'

Disorganized parents expect a childfree coworker to change their plans for them, but he says, "No."

Parents receive their kids' school schedule months in advance. Although it's easy to get lost in the hurricane of soccer practices, band rehearsals, and extracurriculars, parents don't really have an excuse if their coworkers request time off during spring break before they do. In an office where PTO is first-come, first-served, early birds are rewarded. Yet, it's the ones with their family schedule pinned to the fridge at home who seem to forget the urgency of a pending PTO request. 

This early bird found that their foresight earned them a quick trip down guilt-trip lane, when every parent in the office realized (too late) that they could no longer get time off during spring break. At the last minute, the parents scoured the employee list to see who'd taken the week off in their stead, hoping to pin their procrastination on someone else.

Lo and behold, the only childfree employee in the office scored the coveted time off during spring break. 

Did he deserve to be badgered by the parents in the office to give up his time off? No. Did that stop his entitled coworkers from attempting to sway his plans for springtime relaxation? Also no. This employee defended his rights to his preclaimed PTO, citing company laws about FCFS and reminding his colleagues that he had dibs on those days. 

They would simply have to deal with it. 

Perhaps this is a lesson and a reminder to the working parents of the world to plan ahead when it comes to school breaks. Although the time creeps up on those with big bustling families faster than it seems for people without children, it's not up to everyone else in their lives to accommodate their last-minute-ness and the chaos of family life.