A grief-stricken teenager was fired from her job with a fast food chain following the death of her beloved dog. You’ll never believe the reason she lost her job.
Emma McNulty, 18, from Baillieston, Scotland was devastated when her 14-year-old Yorkshire Terrier Milly died. She contacted her manager at 10 a.m. Saturday morning that she was too devastated and sick to come in for her 3 p.m. shift. Her manager told her she’d have to find someone to cover for her or she’d face disciplinary action.
Emma stated during an interview with Glasgow Live
“I informed my manager I could not come into work as I was too devastated and physically sick to do so. Instead of being shown the compassion and sympathy stated in the contract, I was sent a number of nasty messages and told I had to cover my shift as no bereavement time was allowed for pets.
I did not go to work that day and I was fired and left unemployed the same day as losing my best friend, this caused me extreme distress and sickness.”
Since Emma wasn’t able to find a replacement, she says she was told not to come in for the rest of the week. Then an email arrived saying she’d been fired due to ‘gross misconduct.’
“I think it’s disgusting how some companies think it’s acceptable to treat someone in this way with no remorse, a family pet (in my case my dog) has just as much importance as a human family member.
“She was a valued family member and companion, I grew up with her and developed a close relationship that only grew each day.
“It’s time companies acknowledged this and give people the time they need to grieve, with no worry of losing their job.”
Now Emma has vowed to help others who find themselves in the same position. She wants all employers to offer bereavement leave from work without losing their job to mourn the death of a pet. Click here to sign her petition, which already has close to 2,000 signatures.
I’m just curious. Have any of the readers taken time off work to mourn the loss of a pet? How about to care for a sick pet? Please tell your story in the comment section.
She had a lucky escape from an extremely bad employer, in my opinion!
When two of my cats had to have serious dental work done twice,I used vacation because it was planned and I had time to schedule it. When we rescued a sick feral cat, my husband took a paid time off to attend to the cat’s care which was how his company handled their benefits. Finally, when one of my cats developed a serious ear infection I concocted the tale of a sudden back ailment needing a trip to an orthopedic ER near the Animal Medical Center in the City. No one knew the real purpose of this time off. Luckily I didn’t need a doctor’s note as I do in my job now. We have another appointment for dental care in September, I will ask for unexplained Comp time. It is not an easy thing and I work at a professional level. I have done the scheduling for a shift work establishment and, I hate to say, the common practice is to terminate employees for not finding coverage for taking off, no matter the reason, sometimes even if it was a personal medical emergency which was obviously evident. The work world is often not forgiving,