3 days off for a funeral

clairehi

looktothefuture wrote: »

My mother-in-law passed away 1 year ago yesterday. I was allowed 1 day off when she passed away and 1 day off for the funeral!

My boss WAS heartless and asked me to prove she'd passed away - as if spending every evening at the hospital for 12 weeks (whilst working normal hours), and her actually being next to me when the hospital rang to say "get here now... she's not going to be with us much longer" wasn't proof enough for her! I left the company 2 weeks later!

Sounds like a charmer.

I work for a large organisation and compassionate leave is only given for death of close relative ie parent child or sibling (or partners parent).

I would not expect compassionate leave to be given for a grandparent's death , so why should the OP, as a small business, be expected to give 3 days leave.

GiveItBack

tricky one. and part of the reason I dislike having staff. sometimes, you just don't know if they're honest.

I'm suspicious of the situation, but that's probably because you seem to be a little.

Perhaps you could ask her to contact the clients to try to reschedule the appointments? Clients may be more understanding, and she has to tell a lot more people about it.

Perhaps also offer to send flowers to the funeral?

sleepystar1975

Heliflyguy wrote: »

OMG If I ever had to arrange holiday or beg to get time off if I lost my other half or parent I would be walking out of that job asap, what kind of s**t companies do that to its staff.

Anyway under the circumstances I would compromise and give 2 days 1 for the funeral and a half day either side, maybe help with travel arrangements so you can see that all is kosher, I would imagine though that one might go sick in any case.

My Dad died when I was 19-years-old, I worked at a pub at the time, the landlord was a bit of a tyrant.
He firstly told me that as Dads funeral was on a Thursday afternoon (one of my usual shifts) I was not allowed the time off. Then he grudgingly said that as the funeral was at 1.15pm, he would let me start late at 2.30....but if I don't turn up at 2.30, then don't come back. The crematorium is 30 minutes away, so this would've meant me leaving the funeral early, so I didn't go in, nor go back to work for him.


In answer to the OPs question. I too feel that 3-days is a little excessive, given the fact that Manchester to Windsor isn't exactly a trek with modern transport (3hrs 21 mins according to thetrainline). I would offer her the day of the funeral as compassionate leave, then any further time must either be annual leave, or unpaid leave.

It would be worth considering re-writing contracts stating that compassionate/dependants leave is given on a pro-rata basis, and once exceeded annual leave is to be used (obviously this rule can be flexed on your discretion)

puss14

When my grandfather passed away I took 2 and half days off work and my boss was very good about it. I was casual so it was unpaid but I did have to travel 1100km one way, and to get there I had to catch a train 120km away to my brothers so I could get a lift with him and basically fit in with his timetable as he was driving. TBH I would ave liked an extra day off to recover from the car trip as i was utterly exhausted from this plus the grief of the funeral.

I also would not take kindly if I thought my boss was disbelieving about a death. I would take it as a huge insult and would def be looking for new work. Having said that 28 days is very excessive for colds flus etc and I'd be very concerned about that aspect of my employee. I'd probably give her 1 maybe 2 off but ask that she works longer days on the oher days and try to rebook clients at later hours so you dont lose customers. Alos perhaps have a staff meeting with her present and ask the other staff if they would be willing to work some later shifts due to the unfortunate death of Xs grandfather. Doing this makes X realise how difficult her absence is on the other staff.

garthdp

Running a small business is really really hard.Having staff taking the p with time off is hard to manage compared to say a large concern which would not notice one employee away from their post for a day or two.

Reading between the lines the OP has had enough of this shirker and would be well rid of her.There may well be a funeral but it seems she has run out of goodwill.One day is more than enough to get to Windsor and back.You do not need three days for that.Get rid.

ERICS_MUM

On the subject of writing compassionate leave into a staff contract, it would be better to include it in the staff handbook instead so that it can be changed more easily without having to re-write contracts.

olly300

faevilangel wrote: »

If my boss asked me, i would tell them to **** off... It's none of their business.

Would you tell all of your colleagues to !!!! off instead of your boss?

If you tell one or two of them they will tell your boss for you, which actually helps when fighting your corner.

sleepystar1975

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

On the subject of writing compassionate leave into a staff contract, it would be better to include it in the staff handbook instead so that it can be changed more easily without having to re-write contracts.

Good point - I didn't think of that

Errata

On the other hand, if it isn't mentioned at all anywhere then everyone knows where they stand. It never used to be, so what's changed ?

emmaroids

wow what a mean boss :eek:

all employees have a right to 3 days paid leave for funerals, if you sack her over this i hope she takes you to court,BUT if she is pulling a fast one then she deserves all she gets.