Facebook user Syed Ahmad recently took to Facebook to voice his disappointment of his company’s treatment of him after he missed his dad’s funeral due to his work.
Here is the full story.
Hi there everyone, I have an incident to share over here regarding my former workplace which happened over 10 months ago. I understand that this is a little too late but I believe this is something which is neither a trivial matter nor an everyday occurrence therefore, I’ve decided to break my silence on this.
Here’s what happened: On the 23rd December last year at around 9:30am, I was at work, located specifically in the CBD area, covering my colleague’s duty who was on leave. While I was working, at around 9:40am, I received a phone call from a doctor in TTSH, who was attending to my then-alive father. He informed me that my father, who was already in a terminal condition, appeared to be unresponsive, albeit still alive & hence, he declared that my father was very likely to leave this world at any point of time. As a result, he urged me to come down to the hospital immediately to visit & have my final words & prayers to my father.
I told my OM (operation manager), who happened to be in the same room as me & was covering the role of a team leader back then as the original team leader had resigned without giving notice, that I have to rush down to the hospital as prompted by the doctor. However, he told me that he was only able to release me at 4pm. I further responded that I am unable to remain until such timing as the doctor had prompted me to make my way to the hospital immediately. Although somewhat, my OM agreed to a compromise by deciding not to make me remain at work until the said timing, he did not release me right away & instead, he insisted me to remain for another 1 hour over the excuse that he needed me to help him clear his backlog.
An hour later, at 10:30am, the doctor phoned me again & told me that he & his team are now closely monitoring my father & have to place him on life support. Shortly after, I phoned my mother & told her what happened as well as urged her to rush down to the hospital of which she agreed. I inform my OM once again that I have to rush down to the hospital & my mother is making her way there & will be expecting my presence, but again still, he insisted me to stay back for another 1 more hour over the same excuse as what he provided me earlier on. An hour later, at 11:30am, for the 3rd & final time, I told my OM again & even begged him that I have to go off & my mother has reached the hospital & is waiting for me, but I received an unwanted response, which is, “But I thought that your mother is not being concerned about your father’s wellbeing?”. I then replied “It’s not about whether she’s being concern or not but what matters is that the doctor told me that my father appeared unresponsive & because of that, he is very likely to passed away at any point of time therefore, he urged me to make my way now”. And he finally released me & I made my way to the hospital.
En route to the hospital, at 11:42am, I received another phone call from the same doctor again & this time, he informed me that my father had passed away. Upon hearing that, I broke down & cried until my stomach hurts, & it’s not because of my father being no longer around, since he kept on telling me, for many times, that he can sense he will not be around for any longer & hence, he is prepared to face death. Rather, it’s because he passed away without anyone being on his side & worse, I did not manage to whisper my last words & prayers through his ears & be with him for the very last time which all along, I’ve been promising myself to do that to him when his time is nearing. In fact, getting me to whisper my last words & prayers to him through his ear was his ultimate final wish which he expected me to fulfil them & he kept on reminding & urging me to do so, even way before his health condition got critical.
A week after his passing, I got terminated after my OM lodged a complaint to HR against me for taking many days of leave which is deemed to be unapproved despite having explained to them countless number of times that I have to take care of my father for 2 weeks until 22nd November, which was the very final time of his life he got hospitalised, since I was the only caregiver & nobody else were able to look after him during the period when he was lying down at home all day long due to his deteriorating health & he was also being in a state of dilemma on whether he should just proceed on to get hospitalised. During my absence from work, I kept both the HR & my OM notified by producing them letters from a variety of medical specialists that was attending to him during his previous hospitalisations, justifying my absence from work due to me having to take care of my father while he was still at home then, as I was the only caregiver for him & I even told them that I’ll return to work once my father’s being hospitalised, which I really did.
Having said that, I am completely fine with the HR’s decision on terminating me in general & I sincerely accept it, because as a matter of fact, I’ve been longing to leave the company over a number of office politics that I’ve faced for the past 5 years working for them. But, if the HR was smart enough, he could have just terminate me during the period where I was taking care of my father which he never did. That way, it would have been a win-win situation for both the HR & myself, as in, I would not have missed spending my last moments as well as saying my last words & prayers to my late father while at the same time, the work operation of the company would not have been negatively affected. But what pisses me off is that my OM did not allow me to rush down to the hospital immediately, as prompted by the doctor, to witness my father’s passing & have my final words & prayers to my father. Until today, I cannot & will never forgive my OM for what he had indirectly done to my father.