This manager refused to empathize with the mom who was already under a lot of stress, despite the mom clearly stating that her son was on life support.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on December 17, 2021. It has since been updated.
It's never easy to see your child sick, especially when there's absolutely nothing you can do to take away some of their pain. It's agony to watch them suffer. But as much as it hurts to feel so helpless, at some point, you know the only thing you can do is be there for them and tend to them to ease their burden. And that is what Crystal Reynolds Fisher was trying to do for her son, Jason, who was hospitalized and on life support.
What she didn't know was that she was going to be dealt with another blow — one that will make your blood boil. While tending to her son, the mother was fired from her job because she wanted time off. In the image below, Crystal is second from the left and her son, Jason is on the far right.
Crystal's son, Jason, is an 18-year-old who had a life-threatening form of sepsis and was in danger of suffering multiple organ failure. "I didn’t know what was going on, how my son was or nothing. Finally, a doctor came out and said they had to put him on life-support," said the devastated mother, according to The Sun. At the time, she was employed with PS Food Mart gas station in Michigan when her son was hospitalized.
Initially, Crystal's daughter was the one who called up her mother's boss to inform her of the situation. However, Crystal overheard the conversation and her boss saying, "This isn’t the way we run things, your mother needs to be the one calling me," she told Fox 17. It was after this that the distraught mother shot her boss the texts that went viral.
Her boss showed her no sympathy and at one point, even accused her of being dramatic. According to CBS News, Crystal decided to share this on Facebook with the caption, "So my son is on life support and I tell my boss 48 hours before I am to work again that I will not be able to work until my son is off life support and this is what she tells me!"
In the exchange, you can see that the mother had texted her boss, informing her that she wouldn't be into work given her son's condition. To her utter shock, her boss, Dawn, without even asking after her son's health, made the following statement. "That isn't how we do things, so I'll accept that you're quitting." Crystal immediately shot back at her for that callous comment. Taking to Facebook, she posted screenshots of the conversation with her boss, shining a light on her lack of empathy. Read the full conversation below:
To no one's surprise, the post went viral and attracted angry reactions online. One Facebook member commented, "I don’t understand how people can be so sick! Another wrote, "So sorry darlin'!! My prayers are with you & your son!!! You should not have to deal with this kind of bullshit at this sad time! The only thing that you should be focusing on is your boy right now!!"
However, the outrage wasn't just from the public. The head company, Folk Oil fired that manager the day after the texts were put up on Facebook. “Today we were made aware of a situation at one of our locations where an employee was told that they could not get time off to care for a hospitalized child. PS Food Mart and Folk Oil Company are in complete agreement that this is not acceptable," read a statement released by the company, according to News.com.au.
The company also released a statement on their own Facebook page.
Grateful for the heartwarming responses from the company as well as the public, Crystal told Fox 17, "My concern is when my son does wake up and when he does open his eyes, he sees mommy there," according to Independent UK.
References:
https://www.facebook.com/crystal.fisher.583/posts/1958947490804482
Cover image (representational): Getty Images | Photo by rubberball
