Comments on: Should Workers be Allowed time off to Mourn Dead Pets? http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/60/should-workers-be-allowed-time-off-to-mourn-dead-pets/ the lifestyle magazine for dog lovers Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:23:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Joy Ward http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/60/should-workers-be-allowed-time-off-to-mourn-dead-pets/#comment-132 Joy Ward Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:29:25 +0000 http://www.dogmagazine.net/should-workers-be-allowed-time-off-to-mourn-dead-pets/#comment-132 Why do employers give time off for family deaths? Its not really because employers are such empathetic souls that they need to show their concern for the families. No. Let's get real here. it's because they realize that the employee who has experienced the loss is just not very useful and could be actually harmful to the efforts of the rest of the company. Guess what? So are those of us who lose pets! One of the worst few hours of my life was sitting in (what seemed to be at the time) an amazingly misdirected planning meeting. Right before walking in, I had received a call from the vet that one of my dogs had died of a massive stroke. Not only was I really not interested in listening to the inane drivel in the meeting, I suspect I was not my usually controlled self in letting it be known that I thought it was drivel. My bad! So what's the point here? If instead of feeling that I had to "soldier on," I simply was able to say to my boss at the time what had happened and why I needed to leave for the day, a great deal of trouble could probably have been averted. So to make a short story long, YES! Smart employers will tell their employees suffering the loss of a pet to take a day or so off and grieve. Why do employers give time off for family deaths? Its not really because employers are such empathetic souls that they need to show their concern for the families. No. Let’s get real here. it’s because they realize that the employee who has experienced the loss is just not very useful and could be actually harmful to the efforts of the rest of the company. Guess what? So are those of us who lose pets!

One of the worst few hours of my life was sitting in (what seemed to be at the time) an amazingly misdirected planning meeting. Right before walking in, I had received a call from the vet that one of my dogs had died of a massive stroke. Not only was I really not interested in listening to the inane drivel in the meeting, I suspect I was not my usually controlled self in letting it be known that I thought it was drivel. My bad!

So what’s the point here? If instead of feeling that I had to “soldier on,” I simply was able to say to my boss at the time what had happened and why I needed to leave for the day, a great deal of trouble could probably have been averted.

So to make a short story long, YES! Smart employers will tell their employees suffering the loss of a pet to take a day or so off and grieve.

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