Childfree Woman Refuses To Give Her Annual Leave Slot To A Coworker With Four Kids, Office Drama Ensues

You don't need to be friends with your colleagues. You should, however, strive to keep your work relationships professional and civil. You're spending so much time in each other's company, why make it a drag? Neither the company nor you benefit from needless conflicts.

But some find it more difficult to manage their emotions than others. Or, as in this case, treat people the same way they would like to be treated themselves.

Yesterday, Reddit user Hallelujah999 submitted a story to the popular 'Am I the A***ole?' community, asking people to judge the way she's treating her coworker.

Both of them wanted the same days for vacation and the policy is that in such a situation, the employees decide it with the luck of a draw. Which they did. Which Hallelujah999 won.

Under normal circumstances, everything should have ended there, but her colleague began pressuring the woman into giving up her days off and even damaging her reputation as a way to retaliate against the 'injustice.'

Hallelujah999 is thinking about reporting the issue to HR but is still unsure if she's seeing everything straight.

Whatever you think of the ballot system at Hallelujah999's office, the fact of the matter is that managers should do more to ensure everything runs smoothly when employees want to take time off.

The average American's workload increases by almost a third when covering for an absent co-worker.

A survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of cannabis telemedicine and delivery platform Nugg, asked 2,000 employees to assess the "cover crunch" they're under when looking after an out-of-office co-worker's responsibilities.

According to the results, over half of Americans (53 percent) find covering for a co-worker to be a significantly stressful event.

As a result, the quality of work may suffer, with 40 percent of respondents admitting they've phoned it in when covering for a co-worker and didn't care if the job was done well or not.

However, when it comes to vacation scheduling conflicts, some experts think that it's best to leave everything to the employees themselves.

Certain requests, like non-refundable airfares or those involving children's schedules, may be difficult to change and situations like the one Hallelujah999 found herself in can put managers in a tough spot when determining whose leave to approve and who to disappoint.

Michael Steinitz, senior executive director at Accountemps, said leaders should promote open communication among the team: "[They should] encourage individuals to be aware of each other's plans for time off so [everyone] can reach an amicable coverage schedule."

Some people will have needs that are not flexible, but usually, the team will be able to shuffle things around in a way that works for everyone, Cox said. "I truly believe teams can solve their own problems when it is an expectation," she said, "so my first step would be to get team members together and ask them to collectively help solve the issue and prioritize the time off schedule."

"I truly believe teams can solve their own problems when it is an expectation," Mindi Cox, senior vice president of people and great work at O.C. Tanner, added, "so my first step would be to get team members together and ask them to collectively help solve the issue and prioritize the time off schedule."

However, since Hallelujah999's colleague is clearly incapable of having a clam discussion, I think she should not feel guilty at all for involving HR.