Neal works at a company that is stingy with vacation days. His co-worker has triplets and wants to take them on vacation so his other co-workers are donating PTO to her but he doesn’t want to. Why should he have to donate his vacation days just because she has kids and he doesn’t?
Jonathan: Today for panic button we have Neil. So Neil you are a cold, heartless bastard who apparently needs to be visited by three ghosts to change your mind towards a fellow employee of yours at a company. What’s going on?
Neil: Yeah, you can put it that way. True enough. Everybody’s just been giving me a really hard time for something that I don’t think really is a problem. We don’t get much paid time off at work. No one does. But there’s a woman, and she’s got kids. She’s the only person who has little kids. She has triplets.
Jonathan: Triplets? Wow.
Neil: Yeah, she has triplets. And they’re very cute. I get it. People love her kids, and she talks about them all the time.
Jonathan: I don’t know. I don’t want to offend the people with multiple sets of kids, but I find twins to be cute, but triplets get creepy.
Neil: That’s a lot.
Jonathan: Yeah. They start talking in the same voice and speak in their own language. It’s weird. Anyway, so she, she has triplets and Christmas is coming up.
Neil: Yeah. Everybody’s donating their paid time off because our company allows us to do it, which I think is mental to let people do that. I mean, just because someone has kids now, everyone feels obligated to do it and everyone’s done it right now. Everyone’s coming at me because I’m not doing it. I’m just not giving up my time off to someone because they have kids.
Jonathan: You’re not donating your PTO to her just because she has triplets?
Neil: Right, Right.
Jonathan: Do you at least feel sorry her? And what does she need the time off for? I mean, obviously, you’re not working on Christmas, but I’m assuming this is the week of Christmas?
Neil: She wants the whole week off after so she can take the kids on the trip. It just bothers me that everyone’s so okay with this and assuming that this is the way we should do things. I don’t know. It’s her choice to have kids, right?
Jonathan: Yeah.
Neil: No one told her she had to have kids. Maybe she really wanted kids, but that’s her thing. That’s not my thing. I didn’t want to have kids, so I want to have my time off. And I don’t want to have to donate it because they’ve decided to have kids and need a week off for a vacation. I get it, but it’s not my responsibility. And everyone’s coming at me heavy for it.
Jonathan: Is there any way we could talk you into it? Because I feel like it’s the spirit.
Neil: You could try, but it’s not going to work. All right? People already have. And to be honest with you, there’s a few people at work that have donated their paid time off, and now they’re coming to me and complaining about it. But I’m not doing it.
Jonathan: I can see their point of view, though. They donated their paid time off thinking that’s going to give her the full week so she can do what she wants. That’s why I’m giving it to you. And then you hold it up because you’re being selfish.
Neil: I’m not being selfish. I’m just being realistic. I’m just not giving it away. Basically, people who have kids, all the breeders today, they need to learn a lesson. They don’t get special privileges because they have kids.
