Curious about time off Funerals

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Annieindublin

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This came up recently where I work.

A long serving member of staff (30+ years) lost a parent. A few people went to the funeral which was a fair distance from the office so most of a day off. We mainly work from home so most would have been able to check emails etc by late afternoon. I’m sure some did and some didn’t.

Anyway it was always a given that time off for something like this was not annual leave. This time a request to log it as AL was circulated. I was shocked. It didn’t impact me as I was actually already off that week and didn’t attend the funeral but I’ve done it in the past. Sometimes it’s local and it’s an hour or so off. Others are of course further away.

people generally go if they were reasonably close to the person concerned. And of course if they don’t have commitments that can’t be moved. The benefits of the traditional funerals here is that there is a removal the night before where people can pay respects.

Just wondering if time off for such matters is commonplace or is annual leave the norm? Surely if it’s a couple of hours you make up the time easily and no one bats an eyelid.

In the case of the recent one few attending would be getting paid overtime for instance so a bit of give and take would be expected. We record hours for H&S or whatever reasons but that’s not linked to salary.

I’m not aware of anyone taking advantage and new joiners to the office etc going. Although most of the office did go when a colleague died about a year ago, but we got no memos about that one.
 
Some companies will have their bereavement policies well documented but paid leave is typically only paid in the case of the loss of a direct family member.

Where the work and workplace are quite flexible and typically allow staff adjust their hours to work around external commitment time for attending things like funerals or other appointments can be accommodated, but that's at the employer's discretion. Expecting that to extend to most of a day off though is pushing it too far and risking restrictions on that flexibility.

Annieindublin said:
We record hours for H&S or whatever reasons but that’s not linked to salary.
Click to expand...
You record them because your employer is legally obliged to do so (Working Time Act)
 
Was there a removal the night before and could people have gone to that? There is an element of common sense here which most employer would follow, in my case, someone senior would always go if it was local to "represent the company" and possibly some close colleagues as well but the lights have to be kept on in the business also. In fairness, if it was the other side of the country, most people also would not expect anyone from work to attend.
 
Any sensible employer in Ireland accepts the culture of attending funerals & allowing reasonable time off.

I'd expect an employee to let their manager know & for the manager to ask that the employee has cover/ completed work.

Excessive time off would be dealt with as a performance issue should that arise.
 
good point. If someone seems to attend a lot of funerals then a chat is needed. And funerals are a big deal traditionally in Ireland.

I do wonder where our HR memos are coming from, they have a weird tone lately. I suspect a few new HR professionals from a different culture who are bringing their experience is the cause.
 
Usually would go to the night before if possible (unless very close) but raising an issue out of it will not engender much good will to the company.
 
I don’t think that anyone was taking advantage of the previous informal position and going to funerals weekly.

After many years service in a company I’d expect more that a token representative to show up at a funeral of a spouse or a parent.
 
I usually work late (that day or another day close to it) to make up any time I take to go to funerals in office hours.
 
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