An interior design company is facing a whirlwind of social media shame after allegedly firing a man who asked for extra time off after his mother died.
The claims come after a now-deleted post went viral last week on both Reddit and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, documenting the firing.
The anonymous user wrote that he’s a former employee of Koroseal, a commercial interior products company, and was given three bereavement days after his mother died.
“[I] basically got on a flight Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, funeral Friday, flight back yesterday,” the user wrote.
The former employee explained that after returning he work, he didn’t have enough time to grieve as “it’s all been a blur” and asked a human resources worker at Koroseal if he could have the rest of the week to process the death and handle his mother’s estate.
Koroseal did not respond to the Daily Dot’s requests for comment via email or Instagram direct message.
The user wrote that human resources “said they’ve been gracious enough by offering me bereavement and basically fired me over email telling me they’ll mail my final check.”
Since posting his story on Reddit, hundreds swarmed to Koroseal’s social media channels in his support, leading the company to turn off comments and turn its channels private over the weekend.
“Ooooh can’t handle the heat!” one X user wrote after sharing a screenshot of the company’s private X account.
After @fuckyouiquit, a popular X account dedicated to highlighting issues in the workplace, also shared the Reddit post, it garnered even more attention, circulating over 1.9 million views and waves of support for the alleged former Koroseal employee.
“Apparently you are not allowed to have human emotions if you work @koroseal,” one user wrote after resharing the post.
“@koroseal absolutely shameful. No should work for them,” another commented.
In the Reddit user’s original post, he also shared that the company asked him to remove the post after the public outrage. Although the original post has been deleted, users in threads and comments on Reddit have shared their own struggles with bereavement and criticisms of the workforce.
“I lost my mom 4 years ago and my work only gave me 2 bereavement days. My grandmother (who also lived with me and my family) died 2 months later and I had ‘used up’ all the bereavement days for the year,” a Reddit user shared.
“Nah, everyone higher up in the company would be given plenty of time off to grieve,” one Reddit user wrote about Koroseal. “That’s capitalism.”
