To be annoyed that no compassionate leave?

[crunchymint]

I am going to a funeral of a close friend and have to take annual leave.

I think it is all down to discretion of your company. In my current job I have been given a few days compassionate leave for losing a friend and my previous job I was given a day for losing my best friend.
Think people need to show some humanity and compassion when it comes to things like this and it should always be done on a discretionary basis. Things like that make you value your work place more that they actually treat you like a human being and not a robot.

So sorry for your loss 💐

I am a teacher and my best friend died w hen in early forties I was very upset as she had two small children of 7 and 4. I asked my employer for unpaid day off but was told no. I could not take as holiday as teachers holidays are fixed. I told employer i would be taking the day off as I felt I needed to be there. That was first day off I had asked for in over five years and had not taken much time off sick either. I was very upset with employer and told them so. Sometimes people are more important than a job. At least you are aloud to take the day off as holiday.

When I worked in a HR department I found we had to be very black and white with who compassionate leave was for. Otherwise you were in the position of trying to assess who meant enough to someone to justify the leave and then someone would come along and say ‘But so and so got leave for their Aunt’ and then you can’t really say but they were closer to their Aunt than you were to yours. Some people will feel more grief losing a pet than a parent but where do you draw the line. So it was easier to say X,Y,Z yes, anyone else no.

I totally understand the reasons behind that, Mount, but at the same time I do think it's a bit sad that people's relationships, which are so various and complex, have to be reduced to black and white to fit the system.

Well, thank god theres annual leave to cover funerals that compassionate leave doesn't.