Managing leave for staff who are friends or family of a cancer patient

It’s inevitable that at some time during your career as a leader you will have someone in your team affected by cancer. In some cases, this might not mean that your employee has cancer themselves, instead, they have a close family member or friend who enters a battle with cancer.

As the founder of MyMuse, I myself was thrust into this situation in my workplace following my partner’s cancer diagnosis. This is my story…

I was on my way to a client lunch with multiple clients. My partner Mike had gone to the hospital for a regular routine check-up appointment. He was okay to get himself there, so I continued with my day as per usual. But as time passed I began to notice I hadn’t heard back from him and I knew his appointment would have well and truly finished by now. While on the train to my lunch meeting, I sent Mike a message asking how everything went. He replied with just an expletive. Immediately my stomach dropped.

I felt trapped on the train and had to wait until the next stop until I could get off. I felt physically weak and uncertainty rushed over me. As soon as I got off the train, I jumped into a cab and headed straight to the hospital. Hysterically crying in the cab on the way to the hospital, I had to message my clients and let them know that I was sorry and that I wasn’t going to make it to lunch as I had to rush to the hospital.

My clients all responded kindly and sent messages of support. I then had to call my boss and let them know as well. My situation was handled relatively well as I had good communication and trust between my manager.

As a manager or leader of a business, trust and communication are a key element, because when it comes to these difficult situations like palliative care, you are able to have the employee be 100% honest with you if the trust is there. Good communication means the employee is able to discuss with you the kind of support that they may need to during that time.

When an employee’s loved one enters palliative care

Your employee in this situation is likely to be struggling with a range of emotions in wanting to be there to support their loved one, while also becoming fearful of losing their employment so they keep the diagnosis private. Or they may find it extremely difficult to talk about as it is an emotive topic which they are fearful to discuss in a professional setting. When a loved one enters palliative care the way management in the organisation handles this is vital. 

Palliative care is provided for a person with an illness who has little or no prospect of a cure and who is expected to die. This type of care can be delivered in a hospice or hospital or sometimes at someone’s own home, it will all depend on the individual. It aims to optimise the quality of life before a person passes away and can represent a difficult time in your employee’s lives. 

Medical staff may tell them that their family member has two weeks left to live, and then suddenly that person makes a miraculous recovery and they are still around a month later. Medical staff get these timelines wrong all the time, which is why they rarely give timelines anymore.

This makes it difficult for the statutory leave entitlements to be sufficient. 

Compassionate and bereavement leave

Australia’s compassionate & bereavement leave is only two days if an immediate family dies or contracts/develops a life-threatening injury or illness. But when faced with the situation of palliative care, two days is simply not enough. Especially if it is a family member who lives overseas. It can often take two days just to get to where you need to go, let alone have time to process what has just happened. 

Another reason for compassionate leave being insufficient is that depending on religion or culture, people have different rituals. So it's important that these aspects are also taken into consideration. That doesn’t mean to say that employers need to know every religion or culture of their employees, it’s just about being open and understanding enough to have those discussions. Even just asking the employee what support they need and finding out the processes in which their culture/religion takes when a loved one has passed or fallen ill.

It is so important that employers are educated around these types of situations so that when they occur, they will have an understanding of how to go about things. It’s not usually until these situations arise that a manager is exposed to or aware of what kind of support or even what type of conversation should be had around the topic. Most companies tend to do what is legally required and give the two days of compassionate and bereavement leave. 

Some companies will give more leave, but that is solely based on an agreement that the employer and employee may have made together. In general, most companies have no further policies in place where they have extended compassionate leave.

The reality is that at some point in our lives, we are all going to have this happen to us, whether we are a carer or have somebody close to us in palliative care. It’s not just about supporting that employee either, it’s also about supporting the team members who may have extra work to do because of the unfortunate circumstances. By supporting both the grieving individual and the remaining team members, you are likely to receive understanding from the people picking up the pieces as they will know that if they are ever in that situation, they too will receive the same support.

Creating a clear path and policy for your workplace

So how does your business implement a fair policy and have a clear path to follow on what to do in these circumstances? MyMuse can help with that. We help businesses co-design a policy and create a clear path customised to your organisation in order to manage leave and provide flexibility for staff who are a loved one of a cancer patient. Helping you gain insights into the best practices to enhance people’s experience in your workplace and help you become a better, more proactive employer of choice.

MyMuse works with businesses and organisations across Australia and New Zealand. To discuss your needs or learn what is involved in co-designing a workshop or program with the MyMuse team of experts, phone on 0420 790 091 or fill in this contact form and we will be in touch shortly.

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