Zoe Ball....sorry for her loss but the general public don't receive 950K per year and get tiled to take an indefinite length of bereavement leave

[mids2019]

I have had a period of bereavement leave (2 weeks) after the death of my father. Given the nature of deadlines at work I had to send emails during that period.

Am I right to question Zoe Ball paid by the licence fee payers being told to take 'as much time as you want' on a vast salary?.Does this show a good between the celeb existence and that of us mere worker drones?

I agree with you OP.

Taking an extended bereavement leave after the unexpected loss of a spouse or loss of a child = to be expected and encouraged.

Taking an extended bereavement leave after the fully expected death of an elderly and ill parent = taking the piss. A former colleague of mine took 6 months sick when her 95 year old dad finally passed after many years bedridden and suffering from every illness under the sun. We were all

2 weeks bereavement leave is very generous. In my job you get 1 day!

Zoe might be signed off ill, she might not be off for bereavement leave. Which would be between her and her doctor.
Just because she's in the public eye doesn't mean it's fair to comment on her personal life.

I am sure she would much rather be able to work doing a job that she appears to love than going through such a shit time.

very insensitive to be berating someone for suffering.

2 weeks is fairly generous. I know places that would give you a week as standard and then if you want more you take leave or get signed off. I'm not about to go around saying it's a waste of tax payers money to give you 2 weeks though.

Anyone is entitled to go off sick following a bereavement. In my organisation we get 5 days for loss of a close relative. That’s all I took when my father died but I needed to crack on and be around people. Other people go the other way and they get signed off and full pay for up to 5 months. No they aren’t on 950k but Zoe is just as entitled as anyone to take sick absence if he needs it.

To add to this, it’s also likely paps would’ve been following her/waiting for her if she was going to work to get photos and shout stuff at her to get a reaction/story. Whether we like it or not, or agree with it or not, famous/well known people aren’t like the rest of us in certain ways and this is one of them. If she’s off her food from grief they’d be ‘concerned’ about her ‘thin frame’ if she’s comfort eating then ‘Zoe ballooned in grief’, there’d be photos of her ‘looking tense’ or ‘flaunting her legs DAYS AFTER bereavement’ etc. And she’d have to cope with that on top of everything else.

I had six weeks (nhs) off after my dad died . My GP signed me off. I was still crying every day at the 3 week mark. As a midwife i wouldn’t have been thinking clearly and wouldn’t have been safe enough to look after women in labour.

nobody can enforce anything if the GP has signed them off sick.

It presumably took them 6 months to feel able to work again. Just because someone is older and ill doesn't make their death automatically "easier" to deal with

This is really bizarre thing to be so annoyed about. Are you a tabloid trying to drum up an outraged story? 🙄

I would assume she's on sick leave by now rather than bereavement leave. I don't know anyone where I work who only took the basic bereavement leave when a parent died - they all got signed off sick and had a few weeks off.

Maybe take just a split second to consider the impact that all of those years with a father so ill had taken on your colleague? Maybe show just a tiny bit of compassion?

Tbh as an NHS worker your t and c on everything from bereavement to sick leave and beyond are quite a bit better than lots of other similar sectors. I'm a MH social worker and believe me you wouldn't want to swap for our t and c. A colleague of mine recently took her 5 allotted days when her Mum died, then had to come back to work due to not being able to afford to be off, and promptly burst into tears in the middle of serious case review. Then got told she was unprofessional for coming back too soon and not taking unpaid leave! I was given 1 day (yes 1 day) when my brother died. You only get 1 day when it's not a parent or child in our game.
I don't begrudge you it, and I don't begrudge what's been given to Zoe ball either. There is always someone worse off OP. It would, as pp have said, be better if we were all treated with equitable compassion. But that's not going to happen any time soon. You can start by not being shitty abuse someone else's more positive experience though.

Maybe I am just a bit raw with seeing bereavement policy being used inconsistently in the NHS. Making decisions about how long for a paeent, grandoarent, aunt, uncle fiend etc. I get stress is a medical condition but aren't all bereaved people stressed by defintion?

I got two weeks and then got signed off a further six weeks (as well as grieving there was a lot to sort out and was quite far away)

It's not really our business how radio 2 manage their bereavement policy (although I would bet runners etc don't get indefinite leave)

But if you feel you need to take it stand. Cancel your licence and stop watching bbc.

My husband had to go back to work the day after we lost our daughter because there was no one else to do his job. He didn't get offered any bereavement leave at all.

I think Zoe should take all the time she needs to deal with the loss of her mother. Better that she feels and processes it rather than being forced back to work too soon and ends up like my DH who's bottled it all up and hasn't processed his grief at all.

I can't cancel my licence

So then all bereaved people should be able to take further time off sick to deal with that stress.

Those in the NHS are lucky that sick leave will be paid for a decent amount of time. Others don’t get that which makes it even harder for them.

This isn’t a race to the bottom.

I think if you've got to the stage you're angry with other people for having leave from a job following bereavement, something's wrong with you OP.

I wish you the best and hope you are ok.

You know how things work - if your GP says you are stressed you can be signed off work.

That's not bereavement leave.

I think it's annoyance at the BBC not being critical of someone's anguish at a list one. We would all probably do with may be 8 weeks off when these things occur but as pp have said a lot of organisations don't allow this. If the BBC is allowing indefinite bereavement leave to all its employees then can't the country follow. I think it's the standard that if you are high profile you are treated differently that stands out.

@THisbackwithavengeance A colleague of mine took a year off work after his elderly mother died after years of illness and then dementia. He had a complete and utter breakdown from the toll it had taken on him. He even attempted to take his own life. I’m glad he took that year to heal and be himself again. Now he’s in a much better place and living life as a loving husband and father to 3 children. I dread to think the damage that may have been caused to so many people’s lives if attitudes such as yours prevailed and he was made to come back before he was ready.

Do you actually know it is paid rather than unpaid leave?

We (rightly) know no details of her state of wellbeing. I am sorry for your loss, but imagine how it might have felt had you had the press and public speculating and commenting about your (short) absence.

What do you want to happen? Have her forced back on air by lawyers and a team of heavies, breaking down and fumbling through the show, subject to vilification and humiliating headlines with devastating effects? Would you find that satisfying and a just outcome that would make you feel better about your own grief?

Your annoyed with a company who are supporting a struggling employee? What a bizzare view

How do you know she is being paid and not taking it as unpaid leave? My company says take as long as you like but any time off for bereavement beyond 3 days is taken as annual leave or unpaid leave (unless your doctor signs you off - our sick leave is limited to 14 days paid also in a year).

I’m sorry for your loss but I think you maybe jumping to conclusions and getting further upset by external events that we
don’t have evidence for.

Reason 155678 why I don't bother with a TV license, although my issue is with the salary rather than bereavement leave. Lots are being disingenuous though saying just get signed off and have as long as you need; lots of jobs have really crap sick pay policies and people can't afford to. It's a glaring example of the divide, we can wish all we like that others are brought up to the same level but it's never going to happen.