Breaking The Boss

My mom gets a new job and she notices that a specific coworker seems to disappear every twenty minutes or so. It doesn’t matter if the store is busy or not; every twenty minutes, the coworker is just gone. My mom goes up to her one day.

Mom: “Why do you disappear? Where do you go?”

Coworker #1: “Smokers get additional breaks.”

Mom: “Wait, you get extra breaks because you smoke? I smoke, too. Why don’t I get the same breaks? [Coworker #2] doesn’t smoke. They should get the same breaks as we do.”

Coworker #1: “You’re not listed as a smoker, so you don’t get any breaks.”

Mom goes to the boss to complain.

Boss: “You’re a smoker? So am I. From now on, you’ll get extra breaks. Goodbye.”

Mom: “Hold up. I’m a smoker but [Coworker #2] isn’t; they shouldn’t be punished because they don’t smoke!”

Boss: “You’re right. You shouldn’t get extra time. [Coworker #1] will still get their breaks. But to keep it fair, you and [Coworker #2] will not get any extra breaks.”

Mom: “Okay. I have a note from my doctor saying I need to eat every so often.”

She is hypoglycemic.

Mom: “You’ll respect that and let me take a ten-minute break as often as [Coworker #1]. [Coworker #2] just started smoking, so she needs the same break. We should all be allowed the same breaks… or should I talk to someone higher up? I wouldn’t want either coworker to get preferential treatment based on if they smoke or not, considering that’s illegal.”

The boss did try to keep the breaks unfair, but in the end, the first coworker got fewer breaks and had to specify when they were leaving, while the second coworker got more breaks in general. Sadly, Mom lost that job simply because she knew and used the rules; they forced her out. She still made them treat everyone the same, though.