Manager Fired Over Callous Text To Mom With Son On Life Support

ALBION, MI — The manager of a Michigan convenience store "is no longer employed" after a callous text message exchange with employee Crystal Reynolds Fisher, who gave 48 hours notice that she wouldn’t be able to make her shift because her 18-year-old son is on life support at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, store officials said.

“That’s not how we do things, so I’ll accept that you’re quitting,” replied the manager of the PS Food Mart in Albion, identified as Dawn, according to a screenshot of the conversation Fisher shared on Facebook.

“Ok, so how do we do things when my child is on life support?” Fisher replied. “I never said I was quitting so I take it ur firing me?”

“If you can’t come to work, that’s you quitting,” Dawn said.

The conversation gets much worse after that, Dawn holding firm that she took the time-off request as notification that Fisher had quit, and the worried mom emphasizing that she hadn’t asked for time off for a routine eye or dentist appointment, but because her son’s life is on the line.

“There is no reason you can’t work and I will not tolerate the drama,” Dawn wrote. “End of conversation.”

Uhm, not so much, Folk Oil Company, which runs PS Food Mart, said in a Facebook post:

“We investigated and have found that the situation was handled improperly and without the compassion that we value as a company. 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.”

Fisher rushed her son, Jason, to Oaklawn Hospital in Albion last Thursday and he was transferred to the children’s hospital in Ann Arbor that night. Doctors believe he has cellulitis sepsis, the body’s sometimes deadly response to an infection.

“They wouldn’t let me in the room,” Fisher told television station WWMT. “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.”

Fisher told the television station she was flabbergasted by how her former manager treated her.

“This manager that talked to me the way she did and had no compassion or sympathy at all and my son’s on life support,” Fisher said. “This is his life were talking about; he’s not just in the hospital sick, he’s on life-support.”

She wrote on Facebook that she likes working at PS Food Mart and is grateful to its owners for standing behind her.

“I pray for you,” she wrote to her former boss.

Below are Fisher’s post and the company’s response:

Photo via Shutterstock