'Their Boyfriend Died': Redditor Sparks Debate About Work Attendance in Viral Post About Mom

Thousands of Redditors came together to share their opinions on the amount of time needed to properly grieve a lost loved one after a viral post about a user's mother made waves in the widely-popular r/antiwork subreddit.

In a now-viral thread that has received nearly 20,000 votes and over 1,100 comments, u/TheGreatCharta wrote that they learned something disagreeable about their mother. Explaining that their mother was telling them about her day at work, u/TheGreatCharta detailed how she came down hard upon a grieving employee.

"On her way to work one of her employees called off. The employee called off because their boyfriend died after failing to find a heart donor," they wrote.

"My mother had the audacity to tell her to look for someone to cover the shift themselves, stating the attendance and points system," u/TheGreatCharta added.

In 2020, Business Insider reported that the average HR policy grants between one and five days for bereavement following the loss of a loved one. Although three days is reportedly the most common allowed bereavement period, time allotted for grieving varies and is often adjusted according to employees' relationships with the deceased.

According to Business Insider, bereavement periods vary based on familial connections and in some cases, "policies are even murkier for significant others who don't share the bonds formalized by blood or marriage." In their original post, u/TheGreatCharta specified that their mother's employee's boyfriend had died, acknowledging that the couple was not married.

u/TheGreatCharta also explained that the employee's boyfriend died after failing to find a heart donor, bringing their mother's demand that they find someone to cover their shift even further into question.

Last year in the United States, doctors performed 3,658 heart transplants, a 3 percent increase from 2019, according to data collected by the United Network for Organ Sharing. But while the Health Resources and Services Administration reports patients waiting for heart transplants make up just 3 percent of patients waiting for organ transplants, the National Foundation for Transplants says that those patients face astronomical costs, and are almost guaranteed to be billed heavily before it is ever confirmed they will receive a new heart.

Responding to the original poster's thread, commenters commended u/TheGreatCharta for sharing the exchange, and in a couple comments of their own, they said they berated their mother for displaying a lack of empathy.

"I commend you for sharing the story," u/PeterMossack wrote in the post's top comment, which received 13.6K votes.

"'The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any,'" u/PeterMossack added, quoting famed actor and dancer, Fred Astaire.

u/WanderingGreybush called the original poster's mother a four-letter expletive and u/RandyTheRealAmerican was blunt with u/TheGreatCharta, saying simply, "What a disappointment."

u/TheGreatCharta engaged with a handful of commenters and agreed with their assessments of their mother's behavior.

"Imagine your boyfriend dying on Christmas and your boss telling you it's your job to get your shifts covered or face a penalty," they wrote, before detailing the exact words they used to confront their mother.

"I told her she was being a b***h," they wrote in a comment.