


mkmawdw-620x620-1“Dear Google worker,” the letter begins. “Can you please make sure when daddy goes to work, he gets one day off. Like he can get get a day off on Wednesday. Because daddy only gets a day off on Saturday.”

Before fully signing off, the girl named Katie makes her final case.

“P.S. It is daddy’s BIRTHDAY!” she writes.

“P.P.S. It is summer, you know,” she adds.

Katie’s letter touched her father’s boss, Daniel Shiplacoff, because she got a response (below) saying that her dad can take off the full first week of July.

pbdlkds-620x620I think these letters resonate with people because many families struggle to find time to spend together over the summer. Working parents often can’t get time off because they’re in the midst of a busy period or they used up all their vacation days over the holidays and to care for sick kids during the school year. In some families only one parent can go on a vacation with the kids, while the other stays home to work. Maybe mom goes on the cruise with the kids and the grandparents while dad plugs away at the office, or vice versa. These letters are a reminder that family together time is meaningful to children and sometimes you have to speak up and demand that you get that well-deserved time off.

SFGate reached out to Google for more information on the letters and received the following statement:

While we can confirm authenticity, we don’t have any further comment, and the Googlers are not available for interview.

Amy Graff