Saw a post from earlier today about a person getting bereavement leave denied, and it reminded me of an occurrence at an old job of mine.
I used to work for a company under the corporate umbrella of a certain medical furniture supply company (the CEO got internet famous over covid by referring to disgruntled employees as “pity city”).
Anyway, a coworker lost 3 of his 4 grandchildren in a horrific house fire. According to company policy, you got 3 bereavement days for direct family (children, parents, siblings). And 1 bereavement day for extended family (grandchildren, grandparents, siblings-in-law). And the company was only going to grant him the one bereavement day since, “the funerals were all happening on the same day on an unscheduled weekend.”
The guy was one of the most senior CNC operators on the work floor (somewhere around 35yrs experience). So he basically told the corporate HR rep in a meeting since he appealed the in-house hr reps decision. “I lost 3 of my 4 grandchildren in a tragic accident. I'm taking 9 days bereavement leave, just because you don't have a soul doesn't change my decision. If you want to write me up, or 'put this on my permanent record', go ahead. I'm 5 years from retirement, and have enough manufacturing experience that I could get hired in a day at any other company in town.”
All he got was a “we will approve the requested bereavement this time.” No write ups or points against his call-in hours.