An Indian techie recently took to social media to share his story of workplace apathy after his father’s demise. He said that he was asked to “come back to office” after finishing the rituals.
In a Reddit post titled “WFH request denied for my father’s demise”, the techie claimed that his manager denied his work-from-home request following his father’s death. He mentioned that he is currently doing all the rituals.
In his post, the user mentioned: “My dad passed away one week ago. I took 5 days leaves and one week of WFH as my dad was hospitalised earlier. Currently doing the ritual events. I’m at a services-based IT company. For a new project, I was working at client’s location hybrid mode for 2 months.”
He added in his post that he sought WFH permission for 1 more month from his client manager since his mother is alone at his hometown.
“He just said ‘finish the rituals and please plan to proceed ahead’. Meaning, ‘come back to office’. I asked for a call, he didn’t respond. I informed my payroll company manager earlier. That guy is never reliable. He said he’d talk to client manager. Now he is going back on his words. Telling me to talk to client manager itself,” the techie said.
Read the full Reddit post here
What netizens are saying
After the post went viral, netizens were quick to share their takes. Most of them advised the original poster to take a leave instead of going for WFH.
“At this moment you are needed at your home, company will not shut down if you don’t show up for 10 days. This is your time to grieve and support your family. Make that a priority,” a fellow Redditor wrote.
“Take the fucking holiday, whatever number of days you require. If, for any reason, they fire, terminate, whatever the fuck they do to you, please know that we (mod team) are here to help. I personally, will ensure that your resume gets the visibility it would need on the subreddit, and our discord server link and my network of HR professionals to ensure you are employed, and don’t have to worry for money. I’m here to help OP. No bereavement laws in India, not legally enforceable. It is a shame, when much of our cultures have elaborate rituals surrounding demise. Can’t expect all firms to have the goodness of heart. You have 48k+ members with you OP, including us (mod team),” a second user commented.
“Wtf, I took like 7-8 days leave after my dad passed and went back, even then my manager and senior manager asked me that take more leaves if i want to, and not worry about the work. But i wanted to get back to keep mind off the things so went back. They didn’t even cut the leaves for those days and actually marked me present,” a third user said.
“You are not supposed to take WFH in such situations. You are supposed to take leaves,” a user advised.
“This is inhumane. Sorry for your loss, OP. During my layoff, the email that the head of our company sent mentioned that I am taking too many leaves. The last leave I took is in Feb when I came to see parents. These assholes ain’t gonna change,” another user commented.
