Death in the family — will you be docked pay…
My uncle died last week and I had to take time off from work to attend the funeral in Houston. Since I technically work for myself, I didn’t have to ask a boss to give me the time off.
I did, however, tell all my editors that I would be out of pocket until today. I’m still expected to get my work done and meet deadlines. If that means working until 2 a.m. tonight that’s what I’m going to do.
It made me long for the days when I was working for a company and I got a day or two in bereavement time. But then I got to thinking…is there that a benefit corporations still provide?
It’s a good idea to read your employee handbook ASAP and find out what you’re entitled to. Let me tell you, you don’t want to find out you can’t take the time off during a tragedy.
If you can share with me what you get at work I’d appreciate it. Do you get a day, a week, or nada for bereavement. I may do a column on this if indeed the benefit is now a perk from days gone by.
I came across an interesting blog post on The HR Capitalist that refers to a football player who got docked pay because he went to his grandmother’s funeral. I know these guys are paid a lot, but what the heck happened to our civilized society?
January 9th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’m sorry to read about your loss. After your post regarding time off, I thought you may have simply opted for an overdue vacation. I hope this post find you well.
I’m one of the fortunate ones: up to five days of bereavement leave for family members or even a “close friend”. It’s a benefit I’m glad to have, but hope I will never need to use it.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I work for Harris County in Houston. We recieve 3 days of funeral leave for close family members. That means parents, grandparents, siblings, children, step parents, step siblings. We are not able to use funeral leave for aunts or uncles. Hope this helps.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:52 am
When I worked for US steel, our nation’s first billion dollar corporation, there was no provision for bereavement. In the two contract negotiations I took part in, bereavement was never tabled as a benefit. Working for a Pittsburgh, family owned retail outlet, I was given literally one weeks paid leave after my Grandfather passed away. Working for the world’s largest Home improvement retailer, the orange aprons, it was a written courtesy to have three days paid for immediate family and one day for all others with a 12 day annual limit. Now employed by our local school district working under a collective bargaining agreement, again no bereavement benefit. All benefits anywhere are truely a priviledge and not obligatory. While employed by the ‘family owned’ retail Home Decorating store, I became a coordinator for benefits. There were over 50 employees and I discovered just how expensive benefits for any employer were. For example, vacation days paid by the employer in the early 90’s were actually a negotiated business write off of anywhere from 20 to 40% the employee’s wages depending on how the taxes were paid quarterly, semi or annual. Bereavement was a 100% write off up to 7 dats per employee. About 1995, business write offs were cut in half all across the board and as far as I know are almost as austere today. Remember one tax year medical insurance premiums were part of your standard deduction? That is because the following year, your business write off went from 90% to only 33% for any medical benefit provided. This is why alot of employers will make you pay 1/3 of your medical insurance. Most business can consider 1/3 of that benefit as an operating expense and take the 1/3 write off. An oddity about medical insurance premiums that held true in the mid 90’s, for every 2500 group members, your premiums would only be $10 less. And the company who had 100000 employees had the same rules of a company that had 50 people. My experience taught me just how improtant it is for our government to provide business with as much support as possible.