It’s spring.
Everything is blooming.
Animals are out.
Flowers are out.
It’s warm (at least…sometimes).
My wife is in heaven. She thrives on the warm.
I thrive on the cold. Snow does something magical to my body and soul.
Heat does it to hers.
Right now is my wife’s time.
It feels like everything is coming back to life.
Unless…it isn’t.
I got an email this week from Patricia W. who’s OFS sister died.
What do they do?
For starters, Patricia did the right thing and gave her OFS a week off with pay.
Death is hard.
Dealing with death in the Philippines, when you work for a foreign boss, and you live far away from family, is very uncertain.
Here’s their thought process.
- Family is super important in the Philippines
- You live far away from them, because that’s where you got your last job (before becoming an OFS)
- Getting home to be at the funeral entails a 14 hour boat ride and then a 3 hour bus ride. That means getting back to your house after the funeral also takes 2 days.
- The funeral is going to take you 3-5 days to sort-out/help/attend/grieve.
- That’s 7-10 days away from work.
- You’re scared about letting your boss down.
- You’re also scared about losing your job.
- You just lost a loved one.
It’s hard.
Often, it leads to an OFS disappearing. They’re worried about asking you for 10 days off. You might be disappointed.
But they HAVE to go to the funeral.
Hopefully you’ve already established trust with them before this happens. It will prevent them from disappearing and hopefully they ask you for the time off.
Give it to them.
One time this happened with a new recruit of mine.
She was too afraid to email me. She had her sister do it.
“Sir, This is Mayas sister.
Maya is sorry but she can’t work for you.
Our mother died and she must go to the funeral.”
I’m sorry about your loss. I’m willing to wait until she’s back. I still want her to work for me.
Silence.
She was new. She didn’t trust me. We didn’t have a relationship yet.
At least…this is what I think happened.
The second thing you might do is send some money.
$25 – $200. Just say you’re thinking of them and hope this helps with funeral expenses.
Not required. Just nice.
Let them know you care.
Their work may not be perfect for a while.
Let them have time to grieve.
They’ll come back from it. If you’ve treated them well, they’ll come back a rock star.
John