My granpda had a recent severe stroke caused by a brain bleed and I've had to miss a lot of work over the past month because my whole family was prepared for him to die at any minute and I wanted to spend time with him. As well, I had a 2 1/2 week scheduled vacation, which I took (not the whole 2 1/2 weeks) once we knew he was stable and wasn't going to die as a direct result of this stroke.
Fast forward to today and I went to go visit my grandpa, he's been pretty good over the past few weeks, or at least as good as he can be, but when I saw him today he didn't register with me at all. I said “Hi grampy (the whole families nickname for him), how are you doing?” and I got no response. He was struggling to get his cup of water, so I asked if he wanted help and he didn't respond. The only time he did respond was when I left, I said “I'll see you tomorrow, love you grampy,” and he just said “alright.”
I was crying on the drive home because of this so I called my boss and told her I wouldn't be anywhere near the right headspace to work tomorrow. I work in mental health and there's no way I can provide adequate care for people. My boss told me “well ok, if anything changes let me know because we're gonna be short staffed (she's been short staffing us for almost a year).” She didn't say I'm sorry, condolences, or anything. Hell, I would have preferred it if she didn't say anything.
I know, my family know, and my coworkers know that work should be the last thing on my mind through all this. This isn't the first situation like this.
There are 2 reasons I'm not quitting on the spot
- I do really love my job. I'm good at it and I do really help people. I get good words from clients and one recently wrote me a thank you note that made me cry.
- We're going under new management on July 1st and to my knowledge, my boss will be gone.
TLDR: My grandpa didn't register me when I visited him in the hospital today and when I told my boss that I wouldn't be in the right mental state to work tomorrow, she told me to let her know if anything changes because they'll be short staffed.