Should You Get Time Off Work If Your Pet Dies?
Author: Source: hamster-club.com
For many, losing a pet is sad and sometimes traumatic. A cat or dog becomes a friend andpart of the family, and when this friend passes grief is an obvious reality especially if it hadbeen around for a decade or more.
Should pet owners be allowed time off after their beloved friend pass on? Most employers take a request for time off after the passing of a pet as a joke. However, companies are starting to allow bereavement leave for those who lose their pet. A request for time off after a
fish going belly up as many would agree is taking advantage of the system.
Here are a few more insights to help you understand whether your
workers need time off to mourn the death of their pets.
Pets Are More Common Than Ever
According to a study into pet ownership conducted by GfK, a German-based research firm in 2016. It turns out that almost half of the humans on earth have some pets. That includes
exotic pets like snakes and spiders. Pet ownership is a global phenomenon that has grown immensely in the last five years.
According to Dan Ryan at the US Society for Human Resource Management, pets are making more of an impact on employee lives, and this cannot be ignored. Today, the pets industry is worth over $110 billion annually, but the impact goes beyond financial
significance.
Embracing Pet Culture
Companies have gone an extra mile to accommodate pet owners and the rising popularity of pet ownership. Bringing your dog to work is increasingly popular, and companies like Amazon and Google are bursting at the seams with company pets. And IT firm in Tokyo,
Ferray, houses cats owned by its staff members.
A United State marketing firm in Minneapolis has taken it further and grants employees what they call a Fur-ternity leave. Time off granted for members with new pets to spend time with them. Some might say it’s a step too far, but employees at the company appreciate.
In The Case Of Death
Susan Stehlik, the initial response to this question was no, stating that many of those she asked in her place of work responded with the same reaction. The program manager at the
New York University later reported that after turning the question over in her head, her initial response changed to yes.
She explained this by saying that employees request must be respected regardless of how it may seem to others. She stated that it could not be decided where love is assigned in an
individual.
Abuse of the System
But Dan Ryan pointed out that pet bereavement days could easily be exploited creating problems for companies that offer such courtesy. Individual companies raise questions and certainly good points of how an employee would go about providing, a note from the vet or even a photo of the pet serve as proof the pet existed? Cat and Dogs seem obvious, but who is to say how someone could get attached to a pet spider or snake?
by Albert Saliba