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?

As always, this poster comes in with extremely sensible and measured advice (I wish I knew you in real life!!)

OP, your post is the definition of a race to the bottom. @MrsTerryPratchett is right; the focus should be to improve the support for those bereaved in all sectors- not wish less support on others.

I remember a teacher friend saying they get 3 days for an immediate relative (parent, spouse, child) and a day (for funeral) for everyone else. I'm assuming some then take sick leave but I remember being stunned. No wonder they can get more radio show hosts with ease than teachers!

Editing to add that the same teacher was at a training course where the facilitator mocked anyone who took more than 3 days off for the death of parents aged 70+ because it was to be expected. You know, since they were old. Needless to say this teacher will be joining the ranks of 'former teacher' at the end of this year!

Of all the things the BBC deserves criticism for, this is not one of them. You actually are not privy to the details of her contract, but even if she is on full pay, I couldn't care less. More bothered about my TV license fee funding Huw Edwards criminal defence (who thinks they'll get that 200K back from him?)

You could make a point about the inadequacy of bereavement leave in many sectors without demonising Zoe Ball.

this. I used to be a clinician and manager in the NHS.

Teachers can have longer off at the discretion of the head. We don't know the details of Zoe"s absence, nor the sick pay part of her contract. I wish her well.

Sorry about your dad x

Re Zoe, I didn’t know why she’d been off. Lots of jobs are hard and I’m not suggesting her job is particularly so, but she does have to be at the top of her game and cheerful etc. in my job I could hide away at home and plod on without having to face people, she can’t do that.

theres a lot to criticise the BBC for but not this IMO

3 days where I used to work, plus one day for the funeral. It was brutal.

My dh's 16 year old died unexpectedly earlier this year. He was allowed as much tome as he needed and his company paid him full pay.

I was also told by my company, despite only having been there 6 months, to take whatever time I needed and again was given full pay.

The Beeb has taken masses of criticism over the past few years for their behaviour, mostly rightly deserved. However, on this I think you are being massively unreasonable. They have supported an employee at one of the worst times in their life. That should be heralded not condemned. The gact your employer has shitty bereavement policy is not Zoe Ball's fault!!!

I'm sorry for your loss OP.

But there's no excuse for this personal attack.

This.

I've always thought Zoe fragile, the break up of her marriage. The boyfriends suicide, now her mother. She's in a bad place at the moment.

@mids2019 - do you disclose why you’ve been off sick to the rest of your workforce? Or the public in general?

Thought not.

The BBC would be breaking medical confidentiality if they disclosed Zoe’s medical history.

(Zoe -sorry for your loss)

I had one day off school when my mum died, so if it's a competition then I win. However, it's not a competition. She needs to take as much time as she needs, bereavements are awful. If you needed longer than 2 weeks then I'm sure your GP would have signed you off sick.

Also agree @MrsTerryPratchett has got it right, as she often does.

I thought that they were self employed, so she wouldn't be getting paid when off work.

I took about 2 days when my dad died and 1/2 a day when my mum died. I think my company gives a week paid if you need it.

I really don’t care if Zoe takes as long as she needs. I don’t suppose she’s taken this time unnecessarily.

The mother abandoned her kids at a young age then she tells her daughter about unconditional love? All very odd

She could be taking unpaid leave. Nobody knows her exact circumstances. Poor woman.

Would you rather she came back to work and started crying on air?

Honestly, she's clearly having a horrible time and needs to hide away for the time being. Leave her be.

My MIL took 6 months paid leave after her father died. The doctor signed her off. She was deeply depressed.
As much as I cannot for the life of me understand why the bbc are so in love with her , she will have generous provisions in her contract for sick leave . She is on sick leave I should think, not just because she feels a bit sad.
MIL is low paid CS.

Oh, FFS.

Everyone knows that conditions in many parts of the NHS are rough. I know a doctor who doesn't get time to drink any water or go to the toilet. Does that mean people in normal private sector office jobs shouldn't be allowed to hydrate or go to the toilet when they need to go?

I hate, hate, hate this culture of 'my life sucks, so yours must too.'

Two weeks is not always enough. And the two days some posters have mentioned is definitely not enough.

A couple of days is only enough when you didn't know or like the dead person and are just going to their funeral for show.

If you had a meaningful relationship with the deceased, of course you need more time. Everyone should get more time. And it shouldn't be a case of X weeks after the death and then no more. They should get as much time as they need immediately after the funeral, and then to be able to take more leave later on, as grief is not linear.

In my line of work, I have to make important decisions all the time. Honestly, no one would have wanted me doing that when my grief was so raw. I wasn't capable of doing my job well while my head was completely broken.

If my job had involved something routine, repetitive, no human interaction and without any thinking involved then maybe I could have gone back earlier and maybe it would have been comforting. But that's not what I do.

Zoe's job essentially involves being happy and cheering and chatting about inane crap. That is not something you can do well when all you want to do is cry or scream or do both at the same time. I understand completely why she needs the time off to recover.

As for the X days compassionate leave and Y days sick leave... Most decent companies don't pay SSP, so it's largely irrelevant how it's classed. Most decent companies also override any cap on sick pay in difficult circumstances. So it makes more sense to treat it all with the flexibility of compassionate leave.

What's your solution, OP? Fire people who are too grief-stricken to work?

A lot of radio presenters are freelance anyway, so I don't actually know if Zoe is being paid anything by the BBC, or just having her gig kept open for her when she feels able to do it again.

But can people afford to be on sick leave? Most people it's then down to statutory which isn't that much

You didn’t have to send emails after your bereavement, you chose to. Working for the NHS surely you know how annoying the mindset of ‘I pay your wages’ is when someone decides to hurl it at either you or your colleagues. And yet you’re saying it yourself. Would you rather she came back and had a breakdown on air for your entertainment?

If she's being paid then I really couldn't care that I'm partly and indirectly funding this. I can't imagine what she's going through, they were estranged for years and it's not been long since her other bereavement. The BBC wasted £169 million in five years trying to catch licence dodgers - that's something worth moaning about.

I work for the NHS and got 2 days ( one of them to include the funeral) when my dad died. That was on the back of him having dementia for Anita 5 years and me having to manage absolutely everything. The NHS is not à compassionate employer. I suspect maybe the BBC is playing it nice because they’ve had quite a lot of bad press recently.

I'd like to think they also put a formal complaint in about the 'facilitator'