An employment situation John was an immigrant who came to Canada with his family four years ago. He was a retail manager in his home country when he left the job and came here. He searched for a new job for a couple of months before landing his first survival job. It was working for a tire selling company as a customer service rep. John was happy to find a new job even though it was not up to his caliber. John worked hard on his new career and soon got promoted to the assistant manager's position. He kept working in this company for the next three years. During these three years, he was promoted continuously. By the starting of last year, he was already a manager in his company. During this time, his wife upgraded and became a teacher in a local school. I Teachers in Canada and most of the districts must attend a day of professional development day every month. Last year, in September, John's wife needed to participate in her professional development day. It happened to be the last Monday and the last day of the month. John requested a leave from his boss (the GM) a week before to look after his kids. John's boss was in a hurry and told him that he could take the child-care leave. In their company, they just needed to write it on the Whiteboard in the GM's office the name and date of the person who is going to be absent. John did what his general manager told him and told his wife that he could get the leave. On Friday, the same week, his general manager came to him and said that he could not take that leave as Monday was closing for the company and he was needed for the inventory. It was already 4:05 p.m. when John was told this. His usual workday used to end at 4 p.m. John was rushing to pick up his kids from their class when his boss came running to tell him that he could not take the leave. John was shocked for two reasons: 1) why did his boss come this late, on a Friday and that to end of the day when he was already getting late to pick his kids 2) how will he now be able to find childcare for children as it was the weekend already. Facus English (Canada) 56 Sestry development day. It happened to be the last Monday and the last day of the month. John requested a leave from his boss (the GM) a week before to look after his kids. John's boss was in a hurry and told him that he could take the child-care leave. In their company, they just needed to write it on the Whiteboard in the GM's office- the name and date of the person who is going to be absent. John did what his general manager told him and told his wife that he could get the leave. On Friday, the same week, his general manager came to him and said that he could not take that leave as Monday was closing for the company and he was needed for the inventory. It was already 4:05 p.m. when John was told this. His usual workday used to end at 4 p.m. John was rushing to pick up his kids from their class when his boss came running to tell him that he could not take the leave. John was shocked for two reasons: 1) why did his boss come this late, on a Friday and that to end of the day when he was already getting late to pick his kids 2) how will he now be able to find childcare for children as it was the weekend already. John left the company after he told his boss that he will try his best to find child care for his children over the weekend and if he can, he will come to the job, else he is sorry. There are two more parts relevant to the story. Six months before this happened, John had applied for the position of general manager for his company. He was an internal candidate, yet his application was not considered. John was surprised by this, and when the District Manager of the company visited the local office one day, John asked the DM why he was not invited for an interview for this position. The DM said nothing at first but later told him that he should continue to do what he was doing. He was also told that this was the only branch of the company which had two managers, which was costly for the company. Another thing that happened during this time was John's relationship with the other manager. The other manager was a young man. He openly said that he didn't like John as John looked like his father and he did not get along well with his father. Often, he was rude to John. They had Focus English (Canada) Label AaBb C minimum interactions. It is worthy to note that this young man had also applied for the GM's position and did get an interview call. Coming back to the present day, John was standing outside his company in a dilemma of how he'll find child care. He tried his best over the weekend to find childcare but failed to do so. So he did not go to his job on Monday. On Tuesday, it was October 1, 2019, when John went to work. He was surprised to find that a new general manager had taken over in the company. And it was none other than the second manager (the young boy) who used to work with John and hated him. The new general manager called Johp to his office and handed over a termination letter. He was told that due to his insubordination, he could no longer work with the company. John was shocked and refused to sign the letter. He left the company, but before he did, he could get a picture of the termination letter he had been served. It said that as he had taken a vacation day without permission, and even after being warned not to do so, he had been insubordinate and thus terminated. It's important to note here that the company had a policy that said that anyone wanting to take a leave needed to inform the immediate supervisor at least two weeks before leaving. Another essential thing to note here is that employees could not take a holiday on inventory days, especially those in managerial positions. Focus words English Canadal