Full disclosure, this was not me. It was one of my dad’s friends. It’s also not a very long story but I thought it fit here.
My dad’s friend, F, had taken time off to prepare for the birth of his daughter. It had been a very difficult pregnancy as the child had significant health issues. As his wife came into labor, he got a call from work.
“F, we need you to come in right now. We need you to deal with X thing this instant.”
“I can’t, I have to drive my wife to the hospital.”
I legit can’t believe what his boss said next: “We’ll get her a chauffeur. A trusted one, he’ll be there at your house ASAP, you can leave her in his care, and come over to the office.”
They asked him to miss his daughter’s birth, in which both his wife and unborn daughter’s lives were in danger.
F realized what that the company didn’t care for him, at all. He quit on the spot, effective immediately. He was an extremely smart, well-educated young man with very marketable business economics and management skills, he knew he could get another job soon. I don’t know how soon he got his next job, but F is an extremely prominent businessman in my country nowadays. There is a long line of people who’d do anything to work with him because every project he touches turns to gold. He’s brought back businesses from the brink, and turned them into cash cows.
I don’t know what happened with the other employer, but I like to think they’re still kicking themselves for losing one of the best workers in the country permanently, over letting him take a day off for his daughter to be born.