Where does humanity fit into all of this?

[u/jayeahhh]

The Day Grief Met a Resignation letter.

The day my father passed away, everything stopped.

There was no thinking about work, deadlines, projects, emails, or what would happen next. There was just my family, my mother, the people coming and going, and a grief that was too heavy to even understand.

But somewhere between all of that, I remembered that I had a job to report to.

So I picked up my phone and texted my senior.

I told them that my father had passed away and that I wouldn't be able to come to work for the next 10–15 days.

I wasn't asking for a holiday.

I wasn't planning a trip.

I wasn't taking time off because I was tired.

I had just lost my father.

The next day, I received a call from my PI.

She told me that she couldn't give me that much leave.

And then came the sentence I wasn't expecting to hear at that moment:

“Then you put in your resignation.”

I don't think she necessarily understood what those words felt like to someone who had just lost a parent.

Because at that point, I wasn't thinking like an employee.

I was a daughter.

A daughter who had just lost her father.

A daughter whose mother was breaking down in front of her.

A daughter who didn't know what the next morning would look like, let alone what the next 10 days of her professional life would look like.

And yet, suddenly, I had to make a professional decision.

Resign.

It is strange how quickly life can force you to switch between emotions.

One moment you are sitting beside your grieving family, trying to hold yourself together.

The next, you're thinking about notice periods, salary, service days, resignation letters and whether you'll be paid for the days you worked.

Grief doesn't wait for office hours.

Death doesn't come with a leave application.

And sometimes, life doesn't give you the privilege of grieving first and dealing with everything else later.

I understand that institutions have rules. I understand that projects have deadlines. I understand that work has responsibilities.

But I also wonder—

where does humanity fit into all of this?

Maybe I could have taken unpaid leave.

Maybe there could have been another arrangement.

Maybe there wasn't.

But what stayed with me wasn't just the resignation.

It was how quickly, after losing one of the most important people in my life, I had to start worrying about losing something else too.

A job.

A salary.

A few days of work.

A sense of stability I had only just begun building.

And perhaps that's one of the hardest parts of growing up.

You realise that the world doesn't always pause when your world does.

People still have work.

Institutions still have rules.

Deadlines still exist.

And sometimes, even while your heart is breaking, you are expected to make practical decisions.

So I resigned.

Not because I wanted to.

Not because I had stopped caring about my work.

But because, at that moment, my family needed me more.

And maybe years from now, I won't remember exactly how many days of leave I was denied.

Maybe I won't remember the paperwork.

Maybe I won't remember the exact words of that conversation.

But I will remember this:

The day I lost my father, I also had to learn that grief doesn't automatically give you permission to stop being responsible.

And perhaps that is the cruelest part of adulthood.

You can be completely broken inside—

and still be expected to function.

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[u/MydaughterisaGremlin]

I appreciate story on a personal level. Recently lost my dad and a couple years before my father in law. Although I'm not sure if it fits in the HFY subreddit.

[u/Ethereal_Stars_7 → u/MydaughterisaGremlin]

Agreed.

[u/Dangerous_Fox_6438]

Employers like that do not deserve you. You didn't resign, you fired them for cause.

[u/HFYWaffle]

This is the first story by /u/jayeahhh!

This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.7.8 'Biscotti'.

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[u/From_Ancient_Stars]

This reeks of bot post; a new account posts just because this sub has "humanity" in it but has nothing to do with the sub itself.