Woman Asked For A Day Off To Grieve The Loss Of Her Dog Of 12 Years, But Her Work Said No
Louise Peralta
Losing a loved one is always hard. It’s important to take some time off from everything to gather your emotions and process what happened without any other added stress.
But there is no one way to grieve. Some people would opt to go straight back to work and maintain a semblance of normalcy, while there are others who focus on staying strong for the family and they kind of shut everything and everyone out for the time being while they take care of all the funeral arrangements.
One thing that’s totally normal to do is to take time off work to grieve.
Although there is no law that states that employees should be provided bereavement leave, employees can still ask for some time off, paid or not, to grieve a loved one.
Most cases involve immediate family members. But what about our pets? They should be – they are – counted as family members, so it is absolutely valid to ask for a day off to grieve, right?
Well, this TikToker’s employer didn’t think so.
“When I was given the choice to grieve the loss of my dog or possibly be fired, I sent my resignation within an hour,” Sarah captioned one of her videos.
https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahhemmelman/video/7207177874401430826
Sarah found out about her dog halfway through her shift in her now previous employment and said that her team had been incredible and was so supportive of her at first, but everything went downhill the moment her boss yelled at her and accused her of faking about her mental health issues.
“[I] was told I had to come in or it would be an unexcused absence, even though I was going to get a note from my counselor to excuse me. I sent my resignation email 10 minutes before my shift and deleted [my boss’s] number from my phone,” she said.
All she wanted was a day. She only asked for a day off from work to grieve the loss of a dog that she has had for 12 years, and her work denied her of that. Who wouldn’t be frustrated?
The video below might be a bit vulgar for some, but I understand why she’d choose this audio clip to express her emotions.
https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahhemmelman/video/7205973844790660395
Sarah mentioned in another post that her dog’s health started to decline as she got older and was diagnosed with dementia and separation anxiety, and even though Sarah doesn’t live with her parents and her dog anymore, she’d still come home as often as she could to spend time with them.
“The bond between her and I is something I will never fill, nor do I want to. There is a space in my heart that can only be filled by her.”
Even though the decision to put their family’s dog down was hard, Sarah said that her parents knew it was the right thing to do, so their dog, Nushi, would finally be free of all the pain she was holding onto.
Watch Sarah’s touching post about her dog here.
