Resign...

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How would you react if your Boss would tell you in front of your face to resign? would you react like a tamed lamb or a roaring lion?I had this incident minutes ago prior to this writing with my immediate boss. I am being challenged by my religious boss to reign. Reason? I am hesitant to accept this weekend's assignment to go somewhere north. I did not right away tell her that I am not accepting the assignment. I told her that I had prior compromise. She reacted to what i said madly, banging her hand on the table and challenged me to resign. My hesitation came from weeks before of planning for the 64th birthday celebration of my mother who recently was discharged from the hospital. As this Saturday approaches(which is also the time where she asked me to go north for a recruitment thing), my excitement in going home is building up, I am actually looking forward to this Saturday with much anticipation. It is also the very day where me and my siblings will gather in our parents home at the province together with our children, my mother's grandchildren. So that's where my hesitation in right away accepting and rejecting the assignment. Please take note that I DID NOT excuse myself right away, so that leaves a space for reconsideration. Bounded by the call of duty, i have the responsibility to go, (actually i am processing in my mind ways on how will a position myself in these two important things of the day. ) What struck me so much is the challenge for me to resign because she said she always accommodate us but we never accommodated her. I was hurt by this, to me the hidden message is she does not give value to people, she is not giving importance to the years spent in this institution working and sometimes compromising family and self just to answer to the call of duty. Added to that she told me that "...you are paid even on Saturdays and Sunday, therefore you are obliged to work." I argued, my God don't you understand Labor Laws? Don't you understand that these people who work with you and for you are humans too? and to think that we are working in an office where we are supposed to understand and help people. (at the back of my mind, of course she cannot understand that, she is in a religious institution where everything is provided for them, where they would not think of their family, where they are having comforts of their lives which ordinary mortals struggle live every day.) To make the story short, towards the end i was able to let her see the human side, our side, that i was hurt, that she is not supposed to demand half of Saturdays and Sundays for us to work because we are paid, that we are protected by labor laws, and we are entitle for a rest. I think the beauty of our argument is that, first it became a venue for both of us to understand each other better. Somehow, i admit i became the voice of my colleagues who shared the same feelings with me but unable to express their feelings and point of views. She ask for an apology saying further that she is sincere, take back what she said, and accepted she learned a lesson from our argument. On my part I am humbled by the experience, seeing a religious superior accept her faults realizing the implications of being being frank is actually a humbling and at the same time a liberating experience. Well i just hope she'll be true to what she said, and as for me, i am here in this institution where i learn to work upholding to the values of integrity and honesty.