I practically weep to hear this. Parents are of course on the sharp end but there are times when everyone will need flexibility: aging parents, spouse has health emergency, nephew’s important hockey game as mentioned by MelGirl81 etc.

Businesses still act as if there’s a stay at home spouse keeping the home fires burning. That hasn’t been the case in ages. We ALL need more a more flexible workplace.

Happens all the time. How am I supposed to ever meet someone and have my own kids, if I have to spend my whole life working overtime because of YOUR kids?

Believe me, single people’s time is just as important to them as that of those with children’s time is to them.

Lucky for them, I had the horrible experience of working in retail in my 20s with a bunch of single moms. You guessed it. I got stuck with all the holiday shifts and the excuse was that they needed the time with their kids. They did not care that I had plans of my own. My ex and I had an anniversary on Halloween and they still scheduled me because their kids trumped my celebration. Every year.

So, remember folks….it’s a two way street. If you want people to work with you and help you with your time off request you need to do the same for others!

I loved that too! I’m constantly having to cover for coworkers with children, which is fine. What isn’t fine was the time my boss allowed me to leave early to attend a huge, important hockey game that my nephew was playing in and one of the people who’s work is often dumped in my lap had the audacity to act annoyed by this. Some people honestly believe that everything in their lives is more important because they have children. *sigh*