This is an old short story but I'm still astounded by the audacity.
I used to work in a pharmacy/retail chain during my summer breaks of college. I graduated undergrad in 2020, the midst of the pandemic. I of course couldn't find a decent job so just to have money I returned to the chain. When I went back, it was a completely different staff but I figured whatever I still know how to do the job and I knew how to do it well (I've been told multiple times I'm great at customer service). I soon found out how awful the management was. I've talked about it before but just to give context I was yelled at by the assistant store manager in front of customers for using a document accommodation, a shift leader let me be abused by an anti-masker because she said she didn't want to deal with it, all of that good stuff.
This story, though, is about a horrible time in my life. It was a Sunday in August of 2020 and I was just about to leave for work when my dad got a phone call. His happy attitude changed in a minute and he collapsed on the floor muttering how he couldn't believe what he was being told. After he hung up he said that his father, my grandfather, died. It was sudden and unexpected and just horrible. My dad just talked to him the night before. My dad and I were both messes. I could go on about how close I was to my grandpa and how this devastating was but it would take all day.
Almost immediately we start figuring out how we were going to handle this. My grandpa lived in Florida and we live in New Jersey so we start looking for flights to go down to his condo to settle the estate and figure out all of the legal mumbo jumbo.
This is where the title comes into play. As my dad is looking for flights, I call the store to obviously call out to help my dad. When I tell the assistant store manager that I couldn't go in that day he was annoyed. I'd like to also mention that I was crying blubbering mess during this call because I was trying to process everything. I then tell him that I wasn't sure when I would be back in Jersey because I had no clue how long it would take to settle the estate and to clean out my grandpa's condo. I told him as such and he said to give him a time frame. I said max two weeks. He blows up at me saying how I could be gone for two weeks. I said that I needed to help my dad as he had no one else that was able to. In a very annoyed tone he accepted it and hung up, not even expressing any sympathy.
We ended up staying a week in Florida. As it was 2020, there was the 2 week mandatory quarantine period especially from Florida. I called the store and the assistant manager picked up again. I said that I was flying back and had to REMIND him of the mandatory quarantine period as we do have customers that were high risk. Even then I was scheduled too early but at that point I was too tired to fight them.
TLDR: work doesn't care if you're loved one died suddenly, you HAVE to work or else you inconvenience the company!