Paid Bereavement Leave

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How much is reasonable? Or is this a "How long is a piece of string" question?

Beyond 2 weeks paid is it unfair to expect staff to take annual leave/unpaid leave instead?

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Gargamel said:

I think two weeks paid leave is at the upper end of what is fair/supportive.

That's what I thought! And yet they seemed miffed at me suggesting they take annual leave if they needed more time. They pretty much admitted they would have taken sick leave if they weren't already on a performance management plan....!!

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TooMany2cvs said:

What relationship were they to the deceased?

Her mum.

I know this is going to sound exceptionally harsh but she was 95 and had been in failing health for a couple of years. Daughter's main concern is about dad having to go in a care home and the house needing to be sold to pay for it.

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I guess I'm just venting really...

Our normal policy is 1 week. I got approval from HR to give her an extra week as I know she'd been worried about her mum for a while. I guess it was just the expectation that she'd get another 3/4 weeks, with subtle suggestions of how she couldn't afford to take unpaid leave and how she'd already booked her annual leave for Xmas and February .

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elanfan said:

OP - just how old is your employee if her mum was 95? Surely closer to retirement than not?

Yep - nearing 60. Another complication is that they were about to go into capability proceedings. I'd had complaints from her team that they were managing her rather than the other way round.....

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elanfan said:

She is obviously a burden on the business and must be costing it money not just in terms of her inefficiencies but management and HR time. Maybe time for a generous as you can manage compromise agreement to see her out the door.

She's still within her first 2 years of employment so (fortunately) no compromise payment needed. However given that she's just had a bereavement I don't have the heart to put her on capability until she's been back for a few weeks. The problem is that she's behind with a couple of key projects and she is running out of time to deliver them and she will argue that was because of the bereavement. The fact is that, while the bereavement hasn't helped, her performance was already poor.

Damned if I do, damned if I don't ......