Sometimes things just happen out of the blue and they can be very stressful. When those stressful situations occur, we expect to have a support system from our family and friends as well as from those who are our supervisors at work. When a manager is understanding and allows us to take care of those difficult situations, it really can be a positive thing.

The unfortunate reality for many people, however, is that they don’t work for a company that is understanding of difficult situations. Some of them go beyond just taking a nonchalant stand, they actually can make our life quite difficult. A good example is this boss, who is gaining worldwide attention for her foul deed. This is the story of what happened to Crystal Reynolds Fisher, one of the employees where she was a manager.

Crystal had to rush her 18-year-old son to the Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. He was severely ill and there wasn’t much warning. When he was at the hospital, her son (Jason) had to be put on life support. She had no idea what was going on until she was told that they thought he had sepsis.

She made a vow that she would stay by her son’s bedside until he got better. She also knew that she had to let her employer know about her absence. That is when she sent a text message to let them know that she wouldn’t be at work at the PS Food Mart. Things didn’t quite go as she expected.

Her boss, Dawn, not only did not accept her explanation, she fired back with a text message that made things even worse. She texted “That isn’t how we do things, so I’ll accept that you’re quitting.”

The mother was distraught over the text message so she texted back: “Ok so how do we do things when my child is on life support? I never said I was quitting so I take it that ur firing me?”

The response from her manager came back harshly: “If you can’t come to work that’s you quitting.”

The messages continued.

“I will not get into with you on here but I’ve been more than accommodating during this allowing schedule changes and such … There is no reason you can’t work and I will not tolerate drama … End of conversation … If you aren’t there to work your shift tomorrow then I take that as you’ve quit.”

She asked her if she would come in if she was in the same situation. The manager said, “Yes I would, I still have bills to pay and something to keep me busy and occupied. We don’t just get to come and go as we please at Folk Oil. I have tomorrow and Monday covered. Your son is in the best place he can be. I have a store to run and that’s my focus.”

Crystal shared the text messages on Facebook. Tens of thousands of people reacted and many more shared it and left comments. They were outraged over the decision this manager was making. It was also brought to the attention of PS Food Mart and before long, the manager was sacked. PS Food Mart made the following statement:

“We investigated and have found that the situation was handled improperly and without the compassion that we value as a company,” they wrote. “For that, we are very sorry. As a result of this finding, we took quick action and that manager is no longer employed by PS Food Mart. We have also reaffirmed to our employee that she will be able to take all the time off that she needs during this difficult period. We’d like to thank the public for their concern.”

I guess what goes around really does come around.

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