Pet Bereavement Leave

[Kirislin]

You can take it to go to funerals, look after sick family members or take dick leave

Dick leave? Could you please define that?

LOL!!! Best auto correct ever!!

I think that's for when someone dicks you around and you need some recovery time

Or you need recovery after a horrible breakup.

Me: I need to apply for a week off

Boss: sure, what's wrong?

Me: I just broke up with a complete wanker, I need time to put my life back together, I need to apply for dick leave

Boss: oh you poor thing, take all all the time you need.

very understanding boss. Edited June 2, 2014 by Kirislin

[Rebanne]

no one has said to make a pet wait until a day off to be PTS if they were in pain etc. Some of us, me included, said, we would wait until we had time off to organise PTS, if we could. Sometimes our pets are just old and tired, waiting another day or two doesn't make any difference to them. All of my pets have been PTS, none have died in their sleep. All were PTS at the appropriate time, except for one who had 10 hrs of pain before I could get a vet to him. He is why I have always vowed to go too early rather then too late.

[westiemum]

1401538932[/url]' post='6495106']

I don't think it is really necessary, but obviously I think employers should be compassionate and understanding and allow a person to take annual or unpaid leave, because it is very difficult to lose a pet.

My dog Jess had to be put down 5 weeks ago tomorrow . It was very hard, but she had become unwell and I knew that it was unlikely that she would live for much longer after she was admitted to the vet.

I work casually and don't get paid leave. The day after we lost Jess, I decided to go to work, because I thought it would keep my mind off what had happened with Jess. I went to work to distract myself, but ended up slipping over in the hallway (the floor was greasy) and broke my wrist. In hindsight, I wish that I had cancelled my shift for the day, it was the worst week of my life!

Yep FG this is my point - grief is grief and people shouldn't always be at work during times of bereavement - I find they often aren't productive or become a WHS risk - I'd rather they had legitimate carers or annual leave if they need it, look after themselves and come back focussed and come back to work well.

Edited June 2, 2014 by westiemum

[cowanbree]

I think it would be great if it was legislated as part of sick or bereavement leave rather than additional. Not all workplaces are compassionate and understand. Last year I had an extremely bad year and lost 4 pets. Three of them I managed to arrange to have pts at weekends but the 4th one my cat Keriem was during work time. I only took an hour off and I can assure you work was not understanding, my boss even rolled his eyes and said another one. Not all workplaces understand why a pet death is very upsetting, to them it was just a pet, easily replaceable.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

I agree with Diva that it comes down to what sort of state you are in, and whether you are fit to be at work in that state. For me pet bereavement leave stories sound a bit like tabloid click bait that is usually aimed at undermining workers' conditions one way or another. I have the discretion with the leave types available to me to give someone a day off if they have been hit by something nasty without having to have it all classified in detail as "worthy" or not. For myself, I would be wary about describing my own leave as being for the death of a pet, but I take unscheduled leave so rarely that if I said to the boss "Really sorry, I have some personal business to deal with, I need the day off" that he would OK it without any issues.

I'd have no trouble at all giving a staff member a couple of days to get themselves together after the loss of a significant companion. If the staff member is a hoarder who has an animal die each month then it becomes a different consideration, but people abuse leave types all the time, and that includes people getting friends to fake phone in messages at 9:30am like "I'm from X school and you need to collect little jimmy". Genuine and not genuine is pretty easy to spot once you've worked with someone for a few months and it has not much at all to do with whether the stated purpose is kids, pets, parents or whatever.

[casowner]

I have staff that have over 20 Pets as we are in the Pet Industry and while I am always sympathetic and if they need time I always accommodate but I don't think it is fair to put another burden on small business. One of my staff had to have 2 of her dogs put down a few weeks ago and we arranged a card and gifts and helped her through it as much as we could. Pet loss and grief are something that I understand all too well and I will always support my staff but if another leave was given you will see Employers become petist

[Sheridan]

I think it would be great if it was legislated as part  of sick or bereavement leave rather than additional.  Not all workplaces are compassionate and understand.  Last year I had an extremely bad year and lost 4 pets.  Three of them I managed to arrange to have pts at weekends but the 4th one my cat Keriem was during work time.  I only took an hour off and I can assure you work was not understanding, my boss even rolled his eyes and said another one.  Not all workplaces understand why a pet death is very upsetting, to them it was just a pet, easily replaceable.

.

It seems very few people understand the grief surrounding the loss of a pet, including some here from the replies, which I find somewhat surprising.

[WeimMe]

I lost my beautiful girl a month ago on a Saturday and went to work on Monday. I haven't been there very long so I didn't feel that I could take time off for that reason so I forced myself up and went to work. I was glad to have the distraction to be honest as home felt very empty without her. If I had been in no fit state to work I probably would have called in sick.

My husband works for a fantastic software company that really values their employees. Instead of sick days they call them "personal days" - you still only have a fixed amount available per year, but the difference is that you are able to take time if you need it, no questions asked. It's a shame that more employers are not like that.

[Danois]

I was at work the day after I had my last dog put down (in the evening). It was a good distraction and my colleagues were none the wiser until some dear friends had flowers delivered to me.

It would have been harder sitting at home with all the reminders around me. I'm also someone who is able to box up things - work is work and I maintain my professionalism there.

[westiemum]

Good post Danois. But I still maintain grief is grief. If you deal with it by going to work safely and productivity that's great. But I've had to send someone home who came to work a mess after the death of a cat - and it throws everyone else around them. A lawyer I know had a complete meltdown on the death of her bird who she'd had for over 30 years. So I'm not sure there's one hard fast rule.

We offer 12 days paid personal leave and 2 (?) days bereavement leave per service year which can be used flexibly. Our policy is worded deliberately in terms of 'members of an employees household' to be fair to all different types of households - singles with 4 legged companions as well as shared households. Not everyone is in a traditional family or a traditional couple. So from my perspective if people have leave available and can legitimately use it for animal companion death then IMO there's no reason not to. BTW I'll probably front to work when Mac falls off his twig. But that's me and not necessarily right for everyone.

Edited June 7, 2014 by westiemum