Employees Make Sacrifices Caring For Dying Co-Worker

[conuly]

DEAR ABBY: A co-worker has been stricken with multiple stage-4 cancers. We all have been compassionate and caring, supporting him through the challenges of treatment and the side effects. His condition is terminal, in the final stage and deteriorating rapidly. He does have a supportive family, but we don't have the heart to send him home and take away the only thing that gives him his reason to live -- his work. So we spend our time providing hospice care, something none of us have any training for.

Our work environment has become increasingly stressful and anxious, and it's overflowing onto our friends and families, not to mention the toll it has taken on our company. I need to make a choice -- to place my family and my well-being first, take a leave of absence and abandon my co-workers, or stay in support and have a front-row seat to the imminent passing. -- 911 ON SPEED DIAL

DEAR 911: This is something you should discuss with your employer. Neither you nor your co-workers are trained caregivers, and no one should be administering medical care because of possible liability to the company.

You are obviously a sensitive and caring person. However, if the situation has become more stressful than you can manage, it's time to take a step back. To do so isn't "abandoning" anyone; it is looking after your own mental health so you can provide for your family.

https://www.arcamax.com/healthandspirit/lifeadvice/dearabby/s-2704521

Comments

[pauraque]

Where is the company management in this situation? LW writes as though the workers have collectively decided to do this, but isn't there anyone in charge whose responsibility it is to make a hard call here about what the role of the workplace can realistically be?