Last year, after my father-in-law’s funeral, I asked my boss if I could take back the PTO days I’d used for Christmas week and replace them with bereavement time. I felt a little icky asking but also justified. Losing a family member is awful enough. Using vacation time on grieving when you’d expected to spend it on celebration is like salt in the wound.
She replied that I could have up to four days of bereavement time. I’d only planned to ask for one but, knowing my tendency to short-change myself, I convinced myself to take two. My husband talked me into a third.
That means I have three extra PTO days for this year. In the system, they look exactly the same as all my other PTO days, but in my mind they are special and should be spent on something life-affirming. I need to think of a good way to use them.