My Dad Died — Can You Guess What My Boss Said?

This is a story about respect in the workplace and not about asking too much from our employers

Ellen "Jelly" McRae
Career Paths
Published in
8 min readSep 24, 2024

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A frightened, nervous woman, her evil looking boss and Death, all together
The boss and me, dealing with death | Image created on Canva

There's no imagining the day one of your parents dies. They tend to come out of the blue when you least expect it.

Or even when you do expect it, as it was when my father died in 2017.

My dad hadn't been a healthy man for a long time. Battling addiction for most of my life meant he wasn't good at looking after himself.

Even when he was prescribed medication, he wouldn't take it. He would rather have a beer instead.

He would rather not have a relationship with me, either.

As you can tell, his death ended up being a complicated time for me (and everyone involved). But it didn't make a parent’s death any easier to deal with.

During this time, I relied on the normal parts of my life — exercise, my husband, friends, and work.

At the time, I was a copywriter working for a start-up tech company. When I found out, I told my supervisor I needed a week off. The plans for the funeral fell on my shoulders. My supervisor told me he would inform the big boss that I would be away and not to worry about work.

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Ellen "Jelly" McRae
Career Paths

I’m here to use my wins and losses in #relationships as your cautionary tale | Writes 1LD; Cautionary tale women's fiction | https://linktr.ee/ellenjellymcrae