Bereavement leave?

[primgirl]

At my old job you got the day of the funeral off. Unless the person died during tax season in which case you should expect to work and just take off a few hours to attend the funeral. My grandma died the first week of April and I worked 4 hours before her funeral and 5 hours after her funeral.

No surprise I no longer work there.

 

[Bluestars]

At my company, you get 3 paid days off for the death of an immediate family member, which includes, mother, father, MIL, FIL, siblings, and children. If you need more time, you can use sick days, vacation days, or take an unpaid leave.

 

[ThisIsJason]

Immediate family is 10 days, another 10 days can be taken at 3/4 pay. After that you can get up to 30 days of disability pay (1/2 pay).

Non-immediate family is 5 days, and I believe you can get another 5 days at 3/4 pay.

 

[bcla]

Some companies have more days for bereavement leave if the funeral is out of the country. That's often the case with workers in Silicon Valley.

The State Dept has an annual 104 hours for "General Family Care or Bereavement Purposes". That's in addition to being able to use sick leave for that purpose.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/162922.pdf

 

[tvguy]

Worked for 7 different companies over the last 35 years and all had 3 days bereavement leave as the max. All allowed the use of vacation time for additional time.
Now, while bereavement is not a qualified reason for using Family Leave Act, it seems that if you Google it that if you are suffering from depression after the death of a loved one, THAT is a qualified reason for using the act, which would get you 12 weeks additional unpaid leave.

Sadly, I have had 4 co-workers in the past 2 years lose a spouse. 1 took a month off, the other 3 took a week off. All 4 have said that getting back to work was part of their healing process.

 

[sonnyjane]

With my old company you got three paid leave days but could use accrued leave for more. Current company you can kind of take as long as you want, you just won't get paid.

If a person suffering the loss is diagnosed with depression serious enough to meet the standards of "serious personal illness", they can qualify for FMLA however.

 

[bigbabyblues]

The job I had before was 3 days for immediate family, 1 for grandparent, etc.

 

[disney212]

5 days bereavement but additional time is at the discretion of your manager. When my mom died I took 2 weeks all paid, then 2 days when her stone was installed all paid. For those 2 weeks they had catered meals delivered to my house. This is a huge corporation with 50k+ employees. When I was out with cancer 2 years ago they sent food every week and a floral or cookie arrangements every week. They treat us to well to leave.

 

[DebbieB]

My company is 3 days for immediate family which includes spouse, children, grandchildren, grandparents, brothers, sisters of you or your spouse (or domestic partner). Others you would have to take PTO. Just because they pay for 3 days doesn't mean you have to be back in 3 days. After that you can take PTO or unpaid. There's also manager discretion for more, such as out of the country.

I took about a week for both my parents. Really didn't need more, getting back to work was good for me.

 

[LBIJim]

Spouse, domestic partner, child, stepchild, child of domestic partner, parent, sibling-5 days paid bereavement leave. Can also be used for spouse's or DP's parents or siblings. Additional time can be arranged, either unpaid, or through other PTO allotment.

Grandparents or grandchildren-one day.

Cousins and other inlaws and relatives, friends, etc. -none. Must use sick, personal, or vacation days from your allotment if you want to get paid.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

My firm, which is fairly small, very tightly knit, and run much like a family, has a written policy of "at least five days, but longer if the person needs it." It doesn't define who the policy applies to, and it has never been remotely abused, in my opinion. Our largest shareholder goes further with a policy to "always be compassionate and remember that work can wait."

I agree that if my child or wife died, I do not know how I could possibly be back at work in three days, or a week, or even a couple weeks, and it makes me so sad to think about people who have essentially no choice but to go back to work or lose their jobs.

 

[tvguy]

My company is 3 days for immediate family which includes spouse, children, grandchildren, grandparents, brothers, sisters of you or your spouse (or domestic partner). Others you would have to take PTO. Just because they pay for 3 days doesn't mean you have to be back in 3 days. After that you can take PTO or unpaid. There's also manager discretion for more, such as out of the country.

I took about a week for both my parents. Really didn't need more, getting back to work was good for me.

It does have to be tough for an employer. Every employee's emotional needs are going to be different. There is distance of travel to consider. There is actual work to be done in planning, and the time any services need.
I took the day after my mom passed off to handle funeral planning, and 2 months later I took 1 day off to deal with her estate sale.
But my mom had written out her final wishes 38 years before (when I turned 18), and she took a few minutes once a year to remind me what those wishes were. It was a little uncomfortable but it was SO helpful when the time came. So this is my little public service announcement to every adult, make sure someone knows what your final wishes are, no matter how young you are and no matter how uncomfortable it maybe at the time.

 

[eliza61]

Was this part of your vacation/sick package or was it a separate bereavement allowance?

I have never heard of any company giving a full month off, paid no less, just for bereavement. Especially during a recession.

If yes, you are right. Never, ever leave.

My company doesn't have specific bereavement days. We have annual leave and you can use what you want out of that.

So basically a few years ago, they kinda of "morph" all leaves into one big package.
So we really don't have a "defined" bereavement leave, or disability (outside of what is legally required). we don't have a set number of sick days. The issue is that when you've got over 100K employees how do you police it? especially since we don't punch time cards. our human resources is pretty much all done electronically. so if I'm on vacation I am responsible for entering it in. I have had employees who get to the end of the year and have forgotten to update the calendar electronically so they still have 15 days lol on the books.

So we have family leave which is 2 weeks at full pay then it goes to 50% of your pay for weeks3-6 and after 6 weeks you can apply for short term disability. after those are exhausted you can apply for a leave of absence.

our "maternity" leave is goofy though. If you have a natural child you get the one month thing but if you adopt they give you 6 months plus help pay your adoption fees!! darndest thing.

 

[mnrose]

See? This is what I'm talking about. People need more than 3 damn days to grieve a loved one (especially immediate family). I think 3 days is ridiculous. Like I mentioned in my post above, when my dad died in 2012, I got 5 days and it still wasn't enough time to get everything done that we needed to. And when I went to work the following week, it's like I didn't even get a day to even grieve.

I don't have an issue with 3 days off WITH PAY. That was the policy where I worked. You could, with the permission of your manager (which wasn't hard to get) take a much longer UNPAID leave.

I don't mean to seem cold hearted, but I don't think it's up to an employer to give you a lot of paid time off.

 

[eliza61]

I don't have an issue with 3 days off WITH PAY. That was the policy where I worked. You could, with the permission of your manager (which wasn't hard to get) take a much longer UNPAID leave.

I don't mean to seem cold hearted, but I don't think it's up to an employer to give you a lot of paid time off.

One thing I do like about my job is that the pay is toward the low salary in my area but the benefits are great.

We do think the employer has a place in an employees life. A lot change when we took the attitude that employees with great work life balance made better more productive employees.
And we've done cost analysis that directly proves that when you help employees balance that work/life balance, it cost less.

an employee who loses a spouse or a child can be a hazard and down right dangerous. Why force them back when 99.9% they are not productive and probably cost more in the long run.

We've found that when we allow our employees the extra time, they are less prone to call out more with stress illness, they use less EAP (employee assistance program) benefits which tend to be more costly and they use less medical benefits because they are trying to "deal" with their grief through pharmaceuticals.

since we've moved away from the Employee vs employer mentality and started with a more "symbiotic" mindset. things change.

I've had mothers come and tell me they can never leave the company because when their kids were seriously ill, it was a lifted weight knowing they had time without fear of starving to death.

Also I know it's a bit easier because I work for a large company, I know a small business really struggles but truthfully it's not a lot of time when you look at the overall picture.

take my case, I've been on my job 23 years. rarely do I call off sick so this is the only time in 23 years that I've been out more than 3 days. how often generally do you have employees needing htat amount of time? generally only in 2 scenerios. death of a spouse or death of a child. out of almost 200 people in my division I am the only widow, and I don't know anyone who's lost their kids. so in the grand scheme it's not been a lot of time.

Just my take.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Just curious what your company's policy is on bereavement leave. I guess not so much their "policy" but how long do you get off of work for the death of:

parent-
spouse-
child-
grandparent-

etc-

Husband starts new company on Monday. Last few have permitted 3 days with you not having to use your PTO allocation.

 

[aprilgail2]

My job is 3 days for

Husband
Wife
Domestic Partner
Parent
Sibling
Mother in Law
Father in Law
Step Mother
Step Father
Step Child
Grandparent

 

[DeaverTex]

We can take the day of the funeral off if we count it against our sick leave, and give some advance warning.

 

[kwelch10377]

For my company the written policy is 5 or 3 days depending on the relationship, however most managers are pretty flexible if you need more time. One of the directors in my department just lost his grandmother and mother with about a week of each other and he has been out 2 1/2 weeks at this point and they are not requiring him to take vacation or sick time at this point.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

It is gumbo but I can't imagine asking you to come back to work in 3 days if you lost your wife. I know for a small company it can be costly. I can't imagine WANTING a person at their desk. I can't even begin to tell you how utterly useless I was for days after the funeral. I didn't eat or asleep for days afterward, how productive do you think you would be. My boss saw me at the funeral and told his supervisor not you expect me any time soon

I have to edit that my salary was cut to 50%

Oh I know, I'd be a complete basket case. I remember one guy who lost his wife on a Friday & was back at work Monday. I couldn't wrap my head around it.