In a viral video with over 1.5 million views as of Friday, TikTok user Taylor Watson (@taylormakesvideos) asked her followers for legal advice after her boss asked her to come in during her accepted time off. She shared the thread of text messages between her and her boss, Karen.
“Am I wrong for quitting?” she asked in the caption on the video.
The conversation began with Karen asking Watson to come into work on December 24th and 25th while also recognizing she requested that time off.
“My request was already approved,” Watson replied. “You can’t just un-approve it.”
Watson, who said she has two children, claimed she would not be coming in on Christmas Eve and Christmas.
“This is not negotiable, there are no other options,” Karen replied via text. “If you’d like to keep your job, you’ll be coming in on the days I tell you to.”
In her next text message, Watson said, “then I guess I quit. Merry Christmas.” Her boss then asked her to give her a call.
Users in the comments section shared what Watson should have done instead. Most users agreed to have the company fire the employee instead so that they can claim unemployment.
“Don’t ever quit, make them fire you and apply for unemployment. Also, just don’t respond to messages like that from the start,” one user said.
“Don’t call, they want a conversation without a paper trail,” another commented.
“First mistake is texting them back,” a third user said.