Employee asks for leave after mom’s death, company fires him. What happened next

A US company has come under fire for sacking an employee over bereavement leave

A US company has locked its social media profiles after facing a barrage of hate for firing an employee who asked for leave after his mother’s death. Social media users rallied in support of the unnamed employee who was sacked by Koroseal after he asked for an extension of his bereavement leave.

The incident came to light after the employee posted about it on Reddit. He said that Koroseal, a wallcoverings manufacturing firm, fired him after he asked for an extension on his return date. In the post, the former Koroseal employee explained that he was given three days of unpaid bereavement leave after his mother died.

“[I] was given 3 bereavement leave days to travel all the way to Florida, bury my mom and hurry back home – no time to rest, grieve, anything,” the Reddit user wrote. “I honestly haven’t even had time to grieve as it’s all been a blur.”

When the man emailed HR to request an extension of four days on his unpaid leave, he was fired unceremoniously.

“She said they’ve been gracious enough by offering me bereavement and basically fired me over email telling me they’ll mail my final check,” the man reported.

I was asked to post here. I was fired over email for asking for a few extra days to grieve my moms death.
by u/Jadex9 in WorkReform

In his post, the former Koroseal employee said his company had a strong social media presence and presented itself as a friendly workplace. Reddit users took to social media platforms like Twitter to inundate the company’s page with critical messages – forcing Koroseal to delete hundreds of comments before eventually locking its Twitter profile.

I am extremely disappointed with this company. They fired an employee who simply asked for a few days off to grieve the passing of their mother. It is absolutely heartless and shows a complete lack of empathy and understanding. It is unacceptable to treat an employee this way!

— JM (@john_martinez08) August 30, 2023

Imagine one of your family members dying, and asking for more time to bury & deal with the estate, and rather than being understanding, empathetic human beings, HR over at @koroseal determines that that act damages the company enough to warrant your firing.
Cunts - the lot of ye pic.twitter.com/YzhHCgc9T8

— Nox Greene | (@RealNoxGreene) August 30, 2023

The company @Koroseal allegedly fired an employee for asking for a few days off while grieving their mother.

If this is true, I imagine there will be a nice lawsuit. But I'm not a #Lawyer. https://t.co/PcAYnv8Fd9

— Work to Unite (@W2U) August 30, 2023

On Reddit, the former employee also explained that he worked as a machinist on a machine which had at least five to six other operators, so the company could have easily given him the time off he asked for.

He also said that Koroseal asked him to take down his Reddit post after being bombarded with criticism as he thanked Reddit users for coming together to support him. “Reddit actually came through for me in a huge way! They forced the offending company to scrub all social media, lock down their page and delete literally hundreds upon hundreds of comments on Twitter/X,” the user said.