A Daughter's Need: Bereavement Leave

In addition to advocating for women's rights, 9to5 collects stories about women's experiences in the workplace-- the good, the bad, and the downright unbelievable-- for our Voices feature.  This Voices story comes from Gail, a daughter as well as a mother, in New Jersey:

On Aug. 17, 2010, I received the dreaded phone call from the hospice: My mom, who lived in Los Angeles and was suffering from bladder cancer, was nearing the end of her life. Although she had needed care for two years and lived 3,000 miles away from me, her only child, I managed to find reliable 24/7 caregivers and had never requested a day off from my work as a magazine managing editor to care for her myself.

I flew from Newark to LAX the next day.  She passed away a little over a week later. On September 1, my employer notified me that I could use my two weeks accrued vacation to take care of matters.  Despite repeated requests for an additional two weeks of unpaid time off to clean out and prep Mom's condo for rent, and to start the California probate process, my employer terminated me on September 15.  Since I was asked to stay on as a freelance writer, it’s clear that my termination was not performance related.

I needed more than two weeks off to take care of personal obligations after my mother's death.  What would have helped my situation would have been access to extended bereavement leave (unpaid), to settle personal matters related to long-distance family members.  Bereavement is not covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act and there are no national bereavement leave laws.  This is an issue that many other baby boomers will likely face in the future."

Above: Gail and her mother