An employee recently took to r/antiwork to vent about a situation they were put in because of their manager. After the death of their mother, they put in a request for two weeks of paid leave, and their request was approved. A month later, OP was called into their manager’s office and informed that their two weeks of leave was canceled because they were understaffed.

When OP tried explaining that they needed this time off to be with their family and attend their mother’s funeral, their manager said that they understood, but they needed OP to understand they were needed at work.

Unsurprisingly, OP snapped, asking their manager, “Isn’t your job organizing these things so that your employees can take time off for important things?” OP then told their manager that they would be leaving for the funeral whether they find someone to fill in or not. Their manager said that if they did that, they’d have to let them go, so OP said that was fine and walked out.

Many commenters had advice for OP, including the suggestion that they make it clear they aren’t leaving the job but rather let their manager fire them, allowing them to collect unemployment.

Other commenters shared similar stories based on their experiences or those of their co-workers. One person wrote, “I had a coworker ask for 2 days off for her dad’s funeral and our boss denied the leave due to a staffing shortage. We went around her and covered her shifts for the entire week (despite the supposed ‘shortage’). She quit right after and we fully supported her. The rest of us quit soon after.”

It would seem, then, that there’s another death in all of this — any kind of empathy whatsoever from the powers that be.