A waitress and her conversation with her boss has gone viral. Photo / Getty Images
A waitress and her conversation with her boss has gone viral. Photo / Getty Images
A woman who told her boss to say she was unable to work because she was rushing to be by her dying sister's side has shared the shocking texts she got in response.
Hillary Zinks, from New Mexico in the US, works as a make-up artist in the film industry and as a waitress.
While on set at her first job she received a call informing her that her sister was "in a coma, brain dead, could die any moment in the hospital".
Zinks was told by her employer there to go be by her sister's side as there is "no job in this world that is worth missing life over".
She drove straight to Las Vegas to be with her sister, realising halfway through the drive she needed to tell her other boss at her restaurant job.
Zinks told her TikTok followers that what happened next was "inhumane".
Hilary Zinks took to her TikTok after being appalled by her boss' response to the reason she couldn't come to work. Photo / TikTok
Texting her boss, she wrote: "I won't be able to make it in this weekend. I had to drive to Nevada because my sister is dying in hospital there. Oh I'll let you know when I'm back and when I can come back to work. I am so sorry to leave you hanging this weekend."
The manager replied: "I do understand and I am sorry for what you are experiencing. I'm curious as to why you are letting me know 2 hours prior to your shift?"
Zinks said she knew what her boss was getting at but "let it slide" and replied, "because I left at 1 in the morning."
The boss then went on to say the situation made it hard on other staff.
"Like I said I have great compassion and sorrow for what you are experiencing," the text read.
"Though, it is my job to create a positive work environment for all staff. We have a fifty top today and only 2 scheduled staff members are expected for the shift … we will make it work, we always do. It just makes it hard on the crew that does show up."
Zinks said she was fuming.
"I again let her know that my sister's dying and on life support, she may pass away any minute and I just drove eight hours so she doesn't die alone," she said.
Zinks said she decided to quit because "I knew my sister would be laughing her arse off and proud." Photo / TikTok
Zinks went on to reply that she didn't care how hard other people had to work that day and told her boss if she was so concerned she should put on a server's outfit and help.
"That woman is literally calling me a liar straight to my face or pretty much saying that other people's days being hard and that job is more important than my sister dying," she said.
Later on, when Zinks was at the hospital she decided to quit.
"I say, 'call me crazy but after your comments this morning, I just got this crazy weird vibe from my comatose sister that you should eat s**t for what you said and that I should quit'," she said.
"It was accompanied by this lovely picture of me holding up the hand of my comatose sister to flick her off.
"I wanted to do this because I knew my sister would be laughing her arse off and proud."
In another TikTok, Zinks showed the boss' response, who explained she had lost her son four years earlier and said Zinks had "read her completely wrong" as she understood where she was coming from. The boss apologised.
"That's really really awful and I'm sure losing a kid is 1000 times worse than losing a sister and that's why I can't understand her lack of compassion when I told her my sister was dying," Zinks told her followers.
Zinks said her sister died that weekend but was an organ donor and died a "hero".
A more senior manager told Zinks that the manager from the exchange was no longer working at the restaurant and offered Zinks her job back.
