Hello everyone! I have been working from home for about a month and half due to my dad's cancer coming back. This time the cancer is more aggressive and the doctors have told us to prepare for the worst. I am a (26M), I have been helping my mom with anything she needs. My mom can't work at the moment because she's taking care of my dad 100% of the time. I also have a (13M) little brother who needs to be taken and picked up from school as well as after school activities. Since we have nobody else to help, I have been taking him everywhere. I am also on the phone constantly with the hospital and handling all legal preparations for when the worst happens. You could say my plate is already very full.
Yesterday, upper management let me know that I need to come back into the office full time starting next week. The company makes us work from 8am to 5pm M-F and they are based in a suburb that is 40 miles away from my parents and I. With traffic the round trip can be anywhere from 3 to 4 hours, so I wouldn't be able to pick up my brother any more from school, take him to afterschool activities, or be there in case of an emergency.
I have let management know that this doesn't work for me and that I am very thankful and appreciative of them being so accommodating for the past month and half. I can't be so far away when my family needs me. I have also let them know that I have been able to do all my duties and have shown that I can work hard from home. None of this was enough. Managements excuse are the following:
“Everyone is going through something, that's life” – I feel like this is very cold, specially since I have been a loyal and hardworking employee for 3.5 years.
“Part of the job description is to work from the office” -True by why not adapt and continue to help me out for a little bit longer? I am a Construction Project Manager, so all my work can be done from a laptop and cellphone. So why do I need to be in a cubicle that's 40 miles away from my dying father?
I don't understand where this is coming from. I was extremely shocked at how close minded and cold he was during our conversation.
I want to know what my options are here. They can't really afford to fire me since the company is very small and have had multiple people leave in the past year. I am currently involved in 30% of the projects so losing me could be costly. I'm not quitting because I would like to qualify for unemployment benefits. I would like to get fired and find another job, so how do I go about doing that?