23-year-old gas station worker asks for Thanksgiving off after taking Halloween off last minute, gets denied because it would force his 34-year-old manager to work 24 hours straight

There is no tenable way for this guy to get off on Thanksgiving, but that won't stop him from calling out and forcing his coworker to work for 24 hours straight. Is that his fault, or his boss's? 

As sad as it is, you can't always get work off on holidays. If you choose to work in an industry like law enforcement or nursing, where you are required to work around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you can't be all that shocked when you have to work on holidays. You know crime and sickness don't stop just because there is a holiday. The only exception to that is Mother's Day. Crime drops immensely that day, probably because all the criminal moms are out having brunch instead of doing their bidding. It's hard to be a hardened criminal mastermind when your family is too busy celebrating you! 

Certain professionals might intentionally choose to work on certain holidays for many reasons. They might not be particularly close with their families. They could be Jewish or Muslim and not particularly care about being clocked in to work on December 25th. They might also care more about making money than waking up early on Christmas morning and opening presents. Employees who work on holidays often get paid double or triple what they normally earn. If you're trying to pay off debt or save for a down payment on a house, you might prioritize working as much as you can over spending all of the holidays with the family.

If you're at a point in your life where you have to work a minimum-wage job where you have no control over the hours that you work, you probably have to work holidays, and that is not fun. Low-pay, low-agency jobs often motivate people to go to college so they don't have to choose between eating and spending time with their family on Christmas. 

If you have decided that you are going to skip out on your Christmas shift, the least you can do is tell your boss in advance. If you call out on Christmas Day at your service job, that will mean that one of your coworkers will have to leave their family at the last minute to cover for you. In a perfect world, that wouldn't happen, but we don't live in a perfect world.