‘It broke my heart, but I couldn’t tolerate it anymore’: Karen manager secretly changes schedule and ‘forces’ employee to quit, higher ups apologize and ask her to return but it's too late

Sometimes, enough is enough. 

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Author image for Elna McHilderson Elna McHilderson
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  • Have you ever had a manager who just had it out for you for no reason? We like to call those types of managers “Karens.” They just have a chip on their shoulder and will do anything to make your life more difficult than it has to be. What do you do in these cases? Honestly, we suggest just removing yourself from their presence as quickly as possible. But, sometimes that isn't so easy. Like this daycare teacher who had a Karen manager trick her into quitting. 

    It started with the employee putting in her vacation days 2 months in advance. That is way earlier than usual and of course, it got approved. However, it was only penciled into the calendar, and soon the Karen manager devised an evil plan. She erased the employee's approved time, and then when the employee found out and was told to find coverage, the Karen manager kept erasing everyone who agreed to cover for her and making them work so that they were no longer available. Cooked. 

    Eventually, the truth came out and the higher-ups came running to the employee to apologize and get her back. But, for some reason, they didn't want to fire the Karen manager. So the employee said “byeeee” and never looked back. Sometimes enough is enough. 

  • 01
    "They apologized to me on behalf of Karen and asked me to come back... I asked if I would still be working under Karen and they said yes, so I said no."
    via pickpik
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  • 02
    Fired For Using Approved Time Off
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 03
    Some info first: -This was about my first job in 2021 • I was freshly 18 at the time • The job is a daycare that cares for kids' infancy to elementary. It's a small independent business owned by a family. The family is great, I even went to school with, and had a crush on the owner's son when we went to elementary together so me and the owner became kinda good friends when I told her about it. This daycare has also been around since I want to say 2000 ish (not 100% sure). The
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 04
    manager I'm going to talk about, we'll call her Karen, has been working there since it opened. • To request a day off, it's filled out with a paper form and then signed by a manager. There are 3 managers, a morning, midday, and nighttime manager. I worked nights and had the night manager (Karen), but morning manager usually signed my papers.
    via Black_M3rcy
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  • 05
    • Karen was already bullying me and nitpicking every move I made for months before the climax of this story. Telling me to do things that were physically impossible or just disgusting. Some examples include but are not limited to: Being told to play more with the kids rather than watch and keep track of all of them, do that, then be told to play with the kid I'm playing with, clean all the tables, and play with a kid across the room?? One kid diarrheaed all over a carpet, through the diaper, one
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 06
    office and she said she would take the other kids and let me clean it up by myself, gee thanks, how thoughtful. While watching the kids outside I would crack open the classroom window from the outside so I could set my coffee mug on the full windowsill out of reach of the kids. Karen jump- scared me from inside at the window to tell me that's dangerous for the kids, even when explaining I only open it while we're all outside to keep my coffee away from the kids.
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 07
    • Shifts for the month are written out in pencil- this will be important later Storytime: Summer of 2021, I started after Igraduated high school and turned 18 while working there. Now in August, my mom paid and planned a family trip to the mountains to ride the polar express train in late November, specifically on Veteran's Day. I filled out a form (like I had done a few times already now with no issue) and it's approved, management is very thankful I always ask for time off super early. The pap
    via Black_M3rcy
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  • 08
    and looked like it had been marked on the calendar right in front of me. Lies. Fall of 2021. Now it's November and I always like to double check my already approved time off is still in the calendar. This time, it's not. I'm confused and tell the morning manager that I filled out a form that she signed, and she should go back and look at it to see I asked for that day off back in August, so I get first dibs on that day off. She tells me they don't keep those papers so now that day is not approve
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 09
    At this point I'm working in the 1.5 year old classroom which requires 1 teacher per 6 kids. I asked the midday girl in the class with me what I should do and see said she could cover for me, that's great! Easy peasy. Wrong. Karen tells me since the morning woman (the only other person that's worked there as long as Karen) has that day off so I need to find a morning person to take my shift. In hindsight this was dumb af, she was basically asking me to find coverage for the morning woman who has
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 10
    management every day, I'm not going to be here in 3 weeks, help me find someone. In 3 weeks I managed to find 3 other people to cover my shift and when I would tell Karen at the end of my shift that so- and-so agreed to cover for me she would just tell me "Mm no sorry so-and-so is working in this other classroom at that time." After the second time of this, I noticed when I first got in and talked to the morning manager about it that she was almost just as confused as me but showed me that there
    via Black_M3rcy
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  • 11
    However, I noticed something more aggravating than that, so-and-so's name, each time, had been recently erased and written back in somewhere so they can't take my shift. By now I'm I, it's less than a week before my vacation and Karen is actively me over for no reason. I tell midday girl again about this and she said she can handle it. I asked her how and she reminds me that by lunch, when the morning person would leave, so would half the kids, since they are children of morning shift people. Fo
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 12
    in the room by noon. Midday girl can 100% take care of these 6 by herself since morning lady has approved time off, meaning someone will be in the room with her for the 12 kids in the morning. I tell a different manager my plan and she's iffy about it and doesn't fully like the idea. All out of options and management being zero help for a whole month. I go on vacation anyway since I agreed with Midday girl that she would take care of the kids during my shift, and I go and have a great time. I al
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 13
    I come back into work on Monday and get called into the office by Karen, the other two managers are there too but looking nervous and uncomfortable. Karen, almost gleefully, tells me I was a no call no show on Friday and that means I have quit. Not fired, she said I quit. Confused, I look at the other two managers in the room who are just looking at the floor at this point. Tired of Karen's bs anyways I said K bye but ask to say goodbye to the (mostly) sweet angels I've been caring for, Karen to
    via Black_M3rcy
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  • 14
    The next day my dad comes with me so we can talk to the manager together about how unprofessional they were especially since I still had the employee handbook which states I can only be fired after repeatedly being late or a no call no show, and that was my first offence. We get there early so I don't have to deal with Karen and can just talk to the nice morning manager. Me and my dad go in and he talks to the manager lady since he is a manager and can talk to her on an even level. He told her f
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 15
    The manager says she hasn't actually fully read the handbook. Womp womp. We go to leave and she says my last check will be in next week if I would like to come in or have it mailed, I said I would come in to take it in person. The next week I come in to pick up my check and see the nice morning and midday managers who apologized to me on behalf of Karen and asked me to come back since they liked me, the other teachers liked me, the kids liked me and their parents especially liked me. I asked if
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 16
    would still be working under Karen and they said yes, so I said no, but at least she and the midday manager let me say my goodbyes to the little sweeties, one of them even cried while running to hug me when I came to the door. It broke my heart, but I couldn't tolerate anymore of Karen's shenanigans. Now I flip off the building every time I drive past it now shouting you Karen" out the window. ||
    via Black_M3rcy
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  • 17
    Extra tea/ my own head canons: • Karen was making my life to try and get me to quit on my own, having me "no call no show" was her excuse to say I quit, even though I told them for a month straight I wouldn't be there and it wasn't my responsibility to find coverage for a day I asked for 3 months in advance. Karen had this planned for a at least a month since she was constantly rearranging the schedule so I couldn't have coverage, even as far as putting people in rooms they've never been in befo
    via Black_M3rcy
  • 18
    Right before I "quit", the company was bought by a bigger company that wouldn't change anything, but would allow workers to get better raises, bonuses... and give us an HR. Karen fired me right before HR was put in place so I couldn't snitch on her.
    via Black_M3rcy

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