This is a great article, Toni. I once had an employee who lost her husband. I gave her much leave time both during his illness and after he passed. Unfortunately, she had been stealing from the company and undermining authority before he died and this continued.

She also began not showing up at work or calling to even let me know she wasn’t coming. I was in a hard spot, because she was deserving of compassion but was impossible to work with. My boss wouldn’t let me fire her, because of her loss.

This went on for a very long time, until I came across a solution. I made her a part time employee until she was up to working full time again. This left me free to hire someone else on the days she didn’t show up for work. She was so angry over the part time arrangement that she quit.