Last week, my aunt who I was incredibly close with passed away. I live about a 10 hour drive away from my hometown, so I am going to stay a few days after the funeral to be with family. Thankfully, through my company (and it is important to note that this is NOT a small company but a large institution in the US), I have the option for emergency leave when there is a death in the family, so I put in a request. While filling it out I realized there wasn’t the option for aunt or uncle, so I clicked on grandparent but specified that it was my actually my aunt. Obviously I shouldn’t have done that.
My immediate manager approved the request, but then it was sent back from someone else along the chain stating that that the “relationship was not listed in the system policy” because it was my aunt and not one of the listed options. So now I will be forced to use my vacation time if I want paid leave for this funeral because clearly this is an exciting vacation for me.
So thanks to my company, I’ve realized I’m actually not at all upset about my aunt’s death. But when my grandmother, who I haven’t seen in 12 years, passes I just know I’ll be inconsolable.