Worker quits after boss says loss of family dog not good enough reason to take a day off to grieve

It's very hard to explain what a pet means to a person, especially when you're trying to describe the feeling to someone who has never had a pet in their life. Losing a pet can be incredibly hard. When one employee tried to take a day off to grieve the death of their pet, a boss questioned their need to. The employee shared a screenshot of the conversation, sparking a conversation on how workplaces and bosses need to have more empathy and humanity. The employee decided enough was enough and called it quits, especially given how insensitive their boss was to their personal loss. The screenshot was shared on Reddit where it viral and was upvoted more than 53,000 times.

“It’s Hope,” read the first message the employee sent to their boss. “I have a family emergency. I can’t come in tonight.” As a boss, the least you can do is trust someone when they say they have a family emergency. Not to mention that when someone doesn't mention the emergency, it's already hinted that it's personal and something that they would rather not share with their boss. It was evident from the manager's reply that they didn't really care. “Start calling around. You need to get it covered," they replied before adding, "What’s your emergency.” It didn't appear to be the case of the manager being concerned but rather about judging if their cause for requesting an off was worthy enough. The conversation was already littered with red flags at this point. 

The onus of replacing an employee requesting time off should always be on the management. That clearly wasn't the case here and the manager was placing the responsibility of finding someone to take over their shift on them. The employee responded, “I will try and we just had to put the family dog down." The manager didn't think that was a good enough reason. “That’s not the best reason to tell me your [sic] not coming into work,” the manager responded. The worker had enough and put their foot down. “Okay. I’m also turning in my two weeks but if you need something written, I can do that as well,” they responded. The manager was clearly jolted, and replied that they would arrange for someone to fill in so the worker can grieve. “I’ll just figure out tonight,” the manager replied.

The Reddit community overwhelmingly sided with the worker and called out the boss. "Don't let managers fob their responsibilities off on to you; they look after the schedule, so they should be the one calling around for cover. If it wouldn't cause you financial hardship to do so you should absolutely consider quitting immediately and taking the time to grieve with your family rather than having to worry about work or your piece of sh*t manager. Make sure to emphasize that it's their appalling attitude and response that has led to you rescinding your generous offer.
And kindly post their response if you do this as schadenfreude is all that's keeping a lot of us going right now."

Some believed that management should be given a heads up on taking a day off but many rebutted that this was clearly an unplanned emergency. Some shared their own experiences. "I had something similar happen to me where I had someone that needed my help. I explained nicely and let them know there were health issues. She told me to give my two-week notice. What did I do? I laughed right in her face, told her she was out of her mind and I walked out immediately after packing my bag," one person wrote. "The CEO called me a month later: they fired her and gave me another contract. It pays to stand up for yourself. Giving people notices is a courtesy, not an obligation."