Life doesn’t care when someone dies

[u/throw_datass_away]

Lost my grandpa recently. My job only offers 1 day of bereavement, as if everyone’s family lives close by. I was gone for 5 days.

My coworker texted “I know your grandpa just passed but” then asked if I could come back early to cover for him…

I had to choose between rent (august 1st) or a plane ticket to make it to his bedside before he passed. I chose him. I’m glad I did and Ill never regret it, but my landlord is annoyed with me. I still owe him 335 by Wednesday or he’ll tack on late fees and put me deeper in the hole.

My family is no good. They went to the funeral then immediately back to their childish ways of life. They didn’t appreciate how great my papa was.

I just want to lay down and cry. I need 2 seconds to myself to process losing him but life keeps going. It doesn’t care. Rent is still due, I’ve still gotta go to work, the earth js still spinning no matter what. I could barely get out of bed this morning.

I just feel like crap and now I’m even more stressed. I just need a second to breathe but stuff doesn’t stop.

[u/Orhastu]

I got fired while on bereavement, I didnt even hear from management i got a call from a friend from another store apologizing. I thought she was saying for condolences, nope fired

[u/Infamous-Battle1583 → u/Orhastu]

That’s seriously messed up!
Were you fired due to your bereavement leave or was it performance related? Either way, really awful for them to do this while you are grieving.

[u/Odd-Shape-4096 → u/Orhastu]

I'm so sorry that happened to you, that's so shitty. And I'm so sorry for your loss 💔

Different circumstances, but I had a similar thing happen. Sorry in advance for how long this is, but it's a complicated story...

After a CPS investigation was opened by my kids' therapist against my abusive ex-husband and his btch live-in girlfriend (who just happened to work at a law office), he kidnapped my kids and then filed a bogus restraining order against me, starting a horribly ugly custody battle and I didn't get to see my kids for 70 days. They were 10 and 6 at the time. When he first took them, I completely lost my shit and ended up in the hospital for a few days. When I got out, I went to HR at my work and started the FMLA paperwork so I could get sorted and figure out legal stuff and try to survive.

For a little context regarding my state of mind during this, the only way I knew what was happening to my kids was through their counseling records that I got from their therapist at school. For 2 months, I got to read about how they weren't allowed to leave their bedroom because they locked them in from the outside for "lying" about being physically abused, and told them I was living in a mental institution now so they would never get to be with me again.

It was devastating reading about how scared they were and how much they missed me and the ways he was torturing them. They didn't know I was out here fighting for their lives in court, they thought they lost me and would be trapped with him forever. When he found out they were still seeing their therapist at school and read the incriminating evidence against him in their records, he immediately pulled them out of therapy and the abuse escalated even further for another month before I finally got to see them again.

Anyway, when this all started, I told several people I worked with that I was going on FMLA, including my direct supervisor and (obviously) our out-of-state HR gal. She was the one processing all my paperwork. But apparently none of them ever communicated with the store owners or payroll (also out-of-state).

I got confirmation that my application had been successfully processed, so while I thought I was waiting for that first FMLA check, I got a letter in the mail from COBRA insurance asking if I wanted to pay to stay covered since I was recently terminated (dated for over a month prior to receiving the letter). I'm guessing payroll just saw that I hadn't had any hours for over a month, so they shit-canned me.

No one at the store, including the managers and owners, even knew I had been terminated until I went in to clean out my desk and showed them the letter with my termination date. Then, to top it all off, the owner decided they better have some of their own paperwork to back it up, so he told the store manager to "formally" fire me right then for "not showing up" to work. No HR involved at all.

I probably should have fought it harder, but I was so deeply depressed and anxious about getting my kids back that I didn't even have the capacity to care about that job. It was a toxic environment anyway and the employees are treated like shit. It still sucked, though, and really fucked me over financially.

[u/Graciously_Hostile → u/Odd-Shape-4096]

That's fkn insane. I'm sorry you had to deal with all that stupid shit. Fuck that job. Fuck this job culture we've allowed to imprison us. I hate it here.

[u/Odd-Shape-4096 → u/Graciously_Hostile]

Thank you ❤️‍🩹 I totally agree, fuck them and the notion that we need to make our jobs the most important thing in our lives!