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Antiwork

Remembering when a lawyer fired someone because her dad died

This one really stuck with me because it was the most unpleasant experience I had with an US employer. I used to place international workers with US employers, and there was this one instance in which a client asked me to fire one of them because she hadn't shown up to work in too long without notice. This struck me as odd as we're very strict on notices, so I reviewed her file, turned out that not only did she give a notice about needing some days, they were also previously approved by her boss so she had no case. As I reviewed the requests for days off, it was some days because she had COVID (when it was still quite deadly) and then because her dad had died and she had to grieve him and also take care of many legal matters. In an attempt to “make everyone happy”…


This one really stuck with me because it was the most unpleasant experience I had with an US employer. I used to place international workers with US employers, and there was this one instance in which a client asked me to fire one of them because she hadn't shown up to work in too long without notice. This struck me as odd as we're very strict on notices, so I reviewed her file, turned out that not only did she give a notice about needing some days, they were also previously approved by her boss so she had no case. As I reviewed the requests for days off, it was some days because she had COVID (when it was still quite deadly) and then because her dad had died and she had to grieve him and also take care of many legal matters. In an attempt to “make everyone happy” we told the employer we wouldn't charge them for the grief period she took and we would take the charge ourselves, but this person got angry because we were “paying someone for not working” and a father's death is not an excuse to miss work, so she ended up firing her instead.

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