A teenager on TikTok shared a message from the manager at his part-time job asking him to work an extra shift after he allegedly survived a school shooting.
The video, posted by user Matthew Hocutt (@matthewhocutt), has garnered over 142,000 views since it was shared May 12.
As of late May, the Gun Violence Archive has reported 268 mass shootings in America in 2023. In U.S. schools, Education Week has reported 23 incidents of gun violence resulting in injuries or death this year.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Hocutt for more information on the incident.
Now you might think, upon hearing this, that it had to be an unfortunate accident. That the manager didn’t know that their employee had literally just survived a school shooting, because no one, surely, would be crass enough to message a kid asking him to pick up a shift at work.
But no, this manager knew exactly what had happened and even mentioned it in their text message.
“Hello Matthew it’s [blank] I heard about the shooting at your school and I’m so sorry about that I’m sure its scary and I hope you’re doing OK. I was just wondering if you’re OK to work if you wanted to take part of Alex’s shift. She called off and her shift is from 11 – 4:30. Would you maybe want to work from 1 – 4:30? If not that’s OK.”
Some viewers assumed that the manager was desperate at that point as well. We all know big corporations don’t take “this is literally impossible” or “it would be deeply inhumane to do this” as an answer. As the first half of the text does sound genuinely concerned, some commenters have suggested the manager wasn’t given any choice about sending it and likely didn’t want to.
“The very saddest part is that the person asking you this clearly knows it’s super messed up and just doesn’t want their boss to chew them out. Imsorry,” one commenter wrote.
“Even if they gave him an out and they’re just a manager trying to run a business, it’s still pretty weird and inconsiderate to even ask,” another said.
However, many others were still appalled at the manager’s request.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go work a minimum wage job after a life threatening event,” one user commented.
“Capitalism core core,” another wrote.
The comments on the video, in addition to being full of support and outrage for Hocutt, were also filled with examples of similarly inhumane requests from bosses and managers.
One commenter claimed that he’s gotten in trouble at work while recovering from a car accident. “Mine is not this bad at all, but I got in a car crash 2 days ago and I’ve been recovering and I’m in trouble for my attendance. 5 year employee too,” they shared.
Another worker said their employer refused to close the store when there was a shooting at the mall they work at—until the police forced them to close. “Literally had a shooting at the mall I work in and we didn’t close until the cops forced us to,” they claimed.
Hocutt himself left a comment stating, “This is just a perspective on america today.”
