Just interested - how much time did / does your company give for a bereavement

[Privateeyedriver]

My lovely dad passed away two weeks ago after a 6 month battle with cancer.

Work were obviously aware and if I needed to take time to be with him (to give his partner a break) I had to use annual leave.

Ive been given a weeks paid bereavement leave but it wasn’t enough so I self certified sick last week and will go and see my GP to be further signed off this coming week. The funeral isn’t for another 10 days and there’s so much to do. Concentrating on planning that plus grieving means I cannot think about work.

One of my friends was shocked I only get one week paid but another said that was the norm.

I feel guilty now for taking sick leave but work isn’t on my mind at the moment.

Is a week leave the usual? Or is my employer in the dark ages?

My dad also fought a six month battle with cancer. He died in 2017 and at the time I had been working for almost 30 years at a huge corporate with offices worldwide. They were very flexible and one of my senior managers (uk based) made sure I was ok and ensured I could have some compassionate leave when dad was in his final weeks. I had an immediate manager who was based in France and she started making comments about "when will you be back?" Which had me in tears and the uk guy got her to back right off. I got my GP to sign me off sick with stress after that and ended up not going back until after the funeral. I was preparing to return right after the funeral but uk manager told me to take an extra week as time to myself to get my head together. He was so lovely, and the compassion and flexibility was much appreciated. If I'd been at the small company I went to afterwards I'd have been lucky to get a few days. They didn't pay sick leave either.

We get one month for a parent but it is considered very generous.

I was NHS and what you have said is unheard of. I think there must have been something very strange about your department because it isn’t typical at all.

So they're milking it because they can - disgusting!

Automatic 5 days paid for spouse, parent or child. 3 days paid for a parent or sibling. 2 days paid for a PIL. On top of that you get one day paid for the funeral.

Beyond that line manager has discretion to give up to two weeks paid or up to 3 months unpaid. Director discretion to give more paid or unpaid.

When my cousin died and we took in her DC I was given three months paid to sort her funeral and everything out. I was also given a further three months part time hours on full time pay to help the wee one settle.

DH works for the same company and was given three weeks paid leave when my cousin died because of the circumstances.

They're really generous. Although in return they do tend to keep staff for years and people do their bit when needed so it's swings and roundabouts.

Where i work it's discretionary, usually 2 weeks I think. Most people probably take some sick leave

3 months! And we wonder why the NHS is in trouble? My NHS worker husband took 5 days, which included organising the funeral 100 miles away from where we live.

3 days for immediate family that includes 1 day for the funeral. I collapsed when my DF died and had 3 months off sick. The wicked bitch who worked in HR at the time said it was ridiculous I was off for so long.

5 days, spouse and close relatives only.

I got one day, but wouldn’t expect to be paid for a week when I wasn’t working, I took holiday.

I had about a month off to be with my mum when she was dying, work said to take as much time as I needed and I was paid fully which I wasn’t expecting. I went back to work two days after she died.

NHS, 1 week

It used to be up to 5 days for immediate family, with sickness leave after that (but any sickness leave was not taken into account for attendance targets - I don’t know if that was formal policy, but it was just never done). I think it’s now been updated to be up to 15 days across the year for general compassionate leave, rather than a strict 5 days for immediate family, X days for something else, Y days for a different thing.