You MIGHT go home after 4 hours EVEN IF you're throwing up all over the place

[Jack7957]

How do they define direct relative?

Immediate family is: Parents, Children & Spouse, thats it.

I don't remember how that company listed it, since it was about 11 years ago, but I was sitting in the break room when the head of HR came out to borrow the local section to check the obits since someone said they had a deceased relative.
The company I'm now working at, lists in the employee manual that a direct relative as Grandparents, parents, siblings, and children. Anything else, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, I'm sure they'd allow some days off if I asked since it's a small business.

[Kara]

My company allows for 2 "unplanned" absences within 60 days. That's official policy, but the reality is it's based on the circumstance. Just don't feel like coming in? You may get a warning based on you attendance history. Serious illness and/or legitimate personal crisis? Most supervisors won't even question it.

Last year, they started a system for pre-approved time off. They allow up to 7% of the scheduled staffing allowance for that day as pre-approved, so it doesn't matter what the situation is. If there's time available when you call in, no one cares. The only problem this creates is that the people who are too hungover/lazy to get up and come to work usually fill it up, while the people who have serious reasons for why they can't come in have to consider whether or not it's worth the risk of calling in. This problem is compounded by the fact that you can request time off for up through the end of the year, so people can decide they don't want to come in tomorrow and call get it approved today.

[Retail Associate]

At Meijer they won't let you go home if you're sick (unless you're in management). They'll just tell you to "stick it out." That's why I don't go in if I'm sick. And if you do call in sick they tell you to rest for a bit and come in later. Yeah, right! Like that's gonna happen.

My manager calls in more than any of us and has gone home early with a headache many times but if one of us calls in she has a hissy fit.

po'drph...Everyone rags on WM about different things, but forgets to mention that many other retailers do the same or worse.

Meijer, for one. They sell the same cheap shit WM does but at higher prices. They treat their employees like shit, pay minimum wage and give us the fewest amount of hours possible because that's how the managers get the bigger bonuses.

I've never worked for WM so I can't really say which retailer is worse. I just know how lousy an employer Meijer has become.

I worked one place that allowed 3 days off for an immediate family member death. They would verify that it was a direct relative by checking the obits to see if your name was listed among the suviving relatives.

We have to bring in the program from the funeral.

[morgana]

I have a wonderful boss.

Yesterday, he and I were at an off-site meeting, and I started feeling not-so-good. When the lunch break came, when we were supposed to go get food and then report to a different site for the rest of the meeting . . .

He didn't take me to lunch. He didn't take me to the office. He didn't take me to the new meeting site. He took me home, and informed me I was not to come in this morning if I didn't feel better.

Ed's cool.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I don't remember how that company listed it, since it was about 11 years ago, but I was sitting in the break room when the head of HR came out to borrow the local section to check the obits since someone said they had a deceased relative.

So what if your parents live out of state?, their obit probably wouldn't be in your local paper...I guess bringing in the funeral program or mass card makes more sense. I guess I was lucky I worked for a company that actually trusts their employees.... Of course, I was working as an editorial assistant for a non-profit and we had a pretty good team of people.

(despite being in a care facility, my mom is there 1-2 hours every day, minimum so I spend a lot of time when I'm visiting my mom and when she goes to the ER/hospital I'm home as soon as I can be to help my mom) and that doesn't "count" yet someone could be estranged from parents for years but gets "credit" when their father dies?

Same here. My g-parents lived 2 hours away when I was a kid so we saw them several times a year, then my g-ma moved in with us when I was 19. She moved to a facility when I was 23 but she was only 5 minutes away and my mom was there almost every day, and my dad and brother and I visited a few times a week at least (my dad's mother but my mom was the only one not working). I was almost 26 when she died; I was all ready to head back to Philly Sunday night and stopped at the hospital on my way; things weren't looking good, so I talked to my parents and decided to stay. Went back to the house to unload my car and sent my boss an email that it didn't look good and I would be out Monday; a little later got the call from my mom and my bro and I headed back to the hospital but she died a few minutes before we got there. So I sent my boss another email. I went in Tuesday and told him the funeral details, and he just marked it on his calendar, no questions asked.

I'd like to be optimistic and think that most people would count grandparents as worthy of bereavement days. My company gave 3.

[CrazyCashierGuy]

At Meijer they won't let you go home if you're sick (unless you're in management). They'll just tell you to "stick it out." That's why I don't go in if I'm sick. And if you do call in sick they tell you to rest for a bit and come in later. Yeah, right! Like that's gonna happen.

I got told to take a longer lunch. In all honesty though, I guess my store is a little more considerate than most when it comes to sick employees, I've seen them send people home early more than once (with the exception of that idiot of an now ex-manager).

Everything else still applies, straight down to bowing down and kissing SC rear, plus giving them a $10 gift card to boot.

[katie kaboom]

When i worked at the grocery store, i closed alone most nights. Everyone else would get off at 11 and one cashier would have to stay till twelve (the stock guys got there around 10 at night, so i was never actually alone in the store). Well one of these nights i was sick with a UTI. They KNEW i was sick (they didn't know what i was sick with though,and actually at the time, neither did i. I just knew i felt like crap), yet they still left me on my own that last hour.
Well i was in the middle of ringing up a customer and all of a sudden a wave of nausea hit me....i knew i was gonna be sick NOW. The way the registers were set up we had a mic at each register which had a long cord attached to the counter. Well we would hang a plastic bag around the cord so we'd have a place to throw trash. I ended up excusing myself, turned away from the customer, promptly heaved into the bag, and then turned around and finished ringing the guy up. Scarily enough that guy didn't say one word to me. It's like he didn't even notice a cashier THROWING UP right in front of him. The next person in line was a little more observant and asked me if i was ok or something. After that i didn't get sick the rest of the night, but lord knows i had no choice but to stay and finish off my shift. No one was there who could give me permission to leave early and the stock guys weren't trained to run register. So i worked, sick as a dog.

And before you ask why i didn't call out, the closing cashier pretty much wasn't "allowed" to call out. Come hell or high water if you were scheduled to close, you had to be there. Only once did they close early because the closing cashier called out.... with food poisoning.

[po'drph]

Concerning my comments on Walmart, I stand by what I posted. I have known numerous people, from fellow pharmacists, to pharm techs to a couple of store managers that have nothing positive to say about working for Walmart. Now to be fair to Walmart these people do say that working there got bad after Sam Walton died. When EVERY PERSON I know that has worked for them says that it is a bad work experience I find it hard not to believe them. I would only work there if I had no other choice.

[Estil]

I can't stand Walmart. They show these cute little commercials with the cute little smiley face flitting around the store. What they don't tell you is about the stupid cheering sessions they have before opening, the crappy way they treat their employees, and how they drive other people out of business. I pay more and go somewhere else.

Wal-Mart doesn't drive other people out of business, the customers do. It's their own fault for voting with their wallets and CHOOSING to go to Wal-Mart. All they had to do was continue to go to the "mom 'n pop" stores just as they always have, and only to go to Wallie World for things the "little men" don't sell. Oh sure, they gladly support "the little guys" when there's no other choice, but as soon as Wallie World comes along and gives them a choice...

And so far, most of the complaints I've heard about Wal-Mart seem to be true for just about any retailer.

[po'drph]

Like I said Walmart is the only employer where EVERYONE I know (more than 30 people) did not like working there. Sure other places of employment have negatives, but no where near what I've heard Walmart has. As for "customers driving the little guy out of business" I put my money where my mouth is, I shop at
the "little guy" whenever possible. Something to think about: what do you think Walmart is going to do if they manage to get rid of their competition? Somehow I don't think "beware of falling prices" is going to apply anymore.

[toomanycalls1]

Its the people that fake stuff

We are all paying for the many people who fake being sick.

I don't blame companies at all for giving occurences when you call in sick. And having strict policies about how many you can have. It's because of the people that call off all the time.

And if you are really out sick for 3 days or more you should see a doctor.

As far as the proving you had a dead relative well a lot of people fake that too.

One place I used to work you just had to bring something from the funeral which usually is easy enough. When my grandmother died I brought in a mass card. You were allowed to keep it you just had to show it. Also with close relatives often a supervisor or senior person would come to the wake and for people there a long time often flowers were sent.

[toomanycalls1]

Another situation

Is if you are in a stepfamily. More companies include stepparents in the list of acceptable dead people but when my stepfather died in 98 I was lucky to have an understanding boss who couldn't let me use funeral leave because of company policy but let me use sick days and conveniently didn't put them on my record as occurences. I had also only been there for 4 months.

I loved that job. Would still be there but the company consolidated their offices into one big one in Dallas. I was there 2 years and was given a chance to move if I wanted to. But I was married with a new baby. It was a good enough offer that my husband even looked into seeing if he could be transfered to the Dallas office of his company but we didn't want to leave our families.

They had an outplacement firm come in and help us find new jobs and everything. Really cool.