Horror stories about unreasonable terminations from companies are a dime a dozen these days. Nevertheless, one firing incident has still managed to enrage a lot of people because a woman, presumably from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, got fired for not being able to take overtime work since she doesn’t want to miss the bus.
This headache-inducing incident was actually told by the woman’s parent, a Philadelphian who goes by the name grglstr on Reddit. Reddit user grglstr recently posted on a subreddit that their daughter was terminated, and they blame suburban “car brain” culture and its negative effects on the working class, along with a rant about unfair employer practices.
Apparently, the daughter was fired just after four months for merely refusing to work overtime because missing the upcoming Sunday bus would mean she would have to wait another hour. Apparently, Reddit user grglstr also picks up their daughter from the bus station after her shift, so she wouldn’t have to walk from the station to her home.
Additionally, the daughter also took one sick day off from work, and this was something her employer considered as a demerit to her probationary status as an employee, even though she was excellent at her job, according to the parent. It’s not clear whether the parent or their daughter plans to pursue legal action against the employer, though it appears that the bigger part of the discussion is about how a country’s overreliance on personal cars is ruining work and livelihood opportunities for people.
Not an Isolated Incident?
Reddit user grglstr’s post has since gone viral and also invited similar testimonies from people who were fired for a near-identical reason. Others were rejected by the employer for not having a car and for planning to take the bus to work. Meanwhile, people who actually took the bus to work swear by the reliability of public transportation as they were never late, and that the instances when they were late were because they chose car rides for a change.
In any case, lacking what employers assume to be a reliable transportation now appears to be grounds for termination, though the definition of what counts as “reliable” could vary by company. Hence, some of the tips on the subreddit point to how the employees should never give the true reason for refusing overtime work, especially for on-site work.
“I got rejected for a job for the same reason. In the six years I’ve been taking the bus I have been late for exactly 2 times and that was because I caught rides from people driving in traffic,” swears Icy-Establishment298
“I got fired for the same reason even though I was never late to work nor absent… They let me go for ‘being late’ the day I was scheduled to come in an hour later than usual and for not accepting to work those extra events despite us not being obligated to take anything extra outside our normal schedule because I lacked ‘reliable transportation,'” recalls lovegoodsxv
“Good lesson to never give a reason for not staying late. Sufficient to say “i have a prior commitment,” suggests TinyEmergencyCake
