Ironic to think that we as a species make choices all the time, yet some choices are so hard that it stresses us out to no end. But some choices only seem that way—we simply need some support.

Take this mother, for instance, who recently shared a short story—more like an incident—where her teen daughter’s manager effectively gave an ultimatum, forcing her to make a choice between an academic program that will last a month and her retail job.

More Info: Reddit

While it can sometimes be hard to make choices, remember that “no job is ever worth giving up a life-changing experience”

Image credits: Carlos Ebert (not the actual photo)

So, a Redditor and mother nicknamed u/Diana_FooFoo recently went to the Anti-Work Reddit community to share something that happened to her 16-year-old daughter.

Specifically, she submitted her request to get a month off from work, but the manager had to sit her down and talk about the whole deal. The main question was why she was taking a month off, and the answer to that was that she’d like to go to an international academic thing.

This mother recently went to r/AntiWork on Reddit to share a choice her 16-year-old daughter had to make

Image credits: Diana_FooFoo

The manager explained that they won’t be able to guarantee her work hours after she comes back, which, by the way, is 10 hours a week at a retail job that pays $11 an hour. And then the manager proceeded to give her a day to think about it.

Now, the mom did explain that most bosses feel intimidating, especially if you’re younger, but her immediate response was laughter and she called the ultimatum absurd, which seemed to help the teen relax.

OP even needed to give several tiny updates on what she meant

Image credits: Diana_FooFoo

And she turned this display of support into a life lesson, explaining that no job is ever worth more than an opportunity to better oneself, and in the post she said that she’s happy the daughter went through this now as she’ll be more ready with an answer the next time this might happen.

She also stressed the importance of having an “FU” fund, which is effectively money saved in case a job doesn’t work out and you have to leave with middle fingers blazing.

Well, this seemed like it was the end of that, but then Reddit happened and the post went viral. Folks from the subreddit gathered to express their support with advice and by explaining how wrong the manager was for throwing an ultimatum just like that, especially given the whole retail job context.

The internet was all in support of the kid making it in the world, bashing the manager along the way

Image credits: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner (not the actual photo)

This prompted a couple of updates from OP, namely explaining the concept of the “FU” fund as some misunderstood it, and also elaborating that she isn’t upset with the whole work hours not guaranteed thing. What actually upset her was the fact that the manager had to go the ultimatum route. And when you work retail, it just makes it even more ridiculous.

The post ended up garnering over 48,700 upvotes with a good handful of Reddit awards. Be sure to check out the whole thing in context on Reddit, and you can also peep out all of the other Anti-Work stories we’ve covered here.

But don’t go just yet as we want to hear your thoughts on the matter, and if not that, share your words of support for hard-working teens in the comment section below!

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