Time off work when your dog passes

[Arabiannights01]

I just think that I love my dog more than most humans and when it is her time to leave, I will be a distraught- mess for a while, I don’t think work will want a sobbing mess in front of customers. There should be a system where you get some kind of compassionate leave imo.

It’s called annual leave.

No, it should be separate to A/L. What If you have none left?

This is why you always keep a couple of days of annual leave spare.

Time off sick is based on how unwell you are. Not the circumstances that has led to that.

If you are asking about compassionate leave (not documented as sick leave) that’s different and entirely discretionary.

I took 2 days off for my horse. Day 1 I rang in as she had been found dead. Day 2 I turned up, manager looked at me and sent me home
he said day 1 is a blur and sorting stuff and day 2 was for grief

I went back to work two days after my partner died. Took 2 days off total for funeral & death admin. However I am a teacher, so I had the entire half term to grieve 😂
my point is you probably don’t need that long, work is a good distraction

Annual leave.

I logged onto work the day I was intending to put my dog down. It was only when discussing with my co worker that I was calling the vet at 9am that she insisted I logged off.

I was back at work the next day. I adored my dog, but I never expected to outlive him, I always knew that I'd have to go through his passing and I guess I'd been preparing for it for some years. We were lucky, he was small so we were able to bring him home.

How much time do you think you'll need off - maybe its best to keep some of your annual leave back.

Annual leave, or sick leave if it’s impacting your mental health sufficiently that you can’t work.

I love my pets and I think most employment laws need a bit of an overhaul but I didn’t get any leave for losing my parents, my babies, or when my child was in intensive care so I’d be fighting those battles first.

The problem is where do you draw the line though? Much loved elderly dog? 2 year old cat? Hamster that lived 6 months? One of their fish? I would imagine a lot of companies could use their discretion if an employee who is normally very reliable is genuinely struggling over the death of a much loved pet. But no I don’t think it should ever be written into policy about compassionate leave for pets. Because anyone could start making up endless pets to get time off.

You could use annual leave for this. Or, if unable to work due to extreme feelings of grief, you could take time off sick.

Official bereavement leave for humans dying is usually only for very close relatives (spouse, parent, child or sibling) and you'd have to use one of the above for anyone else, regardless of how close you were to them.

Absolutely not ! Can’t believe how work shy some people are !

If you have no annual leave left then ask for some unpaid. But no I don’t think companies should pay compassionate leave for pets.

I gave my employees a few days off. They work hard, and it’s worth it for a loyal
enployee

I don't think this is right either! It reminded me that my husband took two days off when his sibling died. DH was self employed at the time so if he wasn't in work he didn't get paid. He then took a further day off for the funeral and was back at work the next day.

Its not right but its what you have to do.

Former employer here - and dog owner. You are right, there is no statutory leave. We did offer a couple of paid days if an employee requested time off. Often it can be traumatic and only fellow dog owners really get it.

I’m not wok shy. I’ve worked 80 hours a week for companies ( paid for 38). A few days off for compassionate leave is the least they could do !

So you wouldn’t do the same for someone losing a much loved cat?

Dog owner here...you are being bloody ridiculous. If you want time off after an animal dies you use annual leave.

I just think that it should be an entirely separate - new, type of leave. Most people have pets that they love and I don’t think it should be frowned upon if you take time off because your pet has passed away. For some people, their pets are all they have so it would be a stressful time. I might be living in la la land by thinking this but in my world, it would a new policy they every employer would have to adopt.

Someone fairly senior at my work took time off for this recently (two or three days I think). I thought he was taking the piss a bit, it's a dog.

A formalised system for this would be very open to abuse. You couldn't have a hierarchy of pets because who's to decide that your dog is more important than my spider. You'd have people taking days off to mourn the loss of their emotional support chicken.

Even my children didn't take time off from school when the dog died!

But how do you stop people taking the piss? Would they need to declare and prove what pets they have first? Because otherwise someone could be losing 2-3 pets a year! Good way to save annual leave!