Yes, it's heartbreaking to hear she was terminated after leaving to see her husband off.
However, I have fired several employees over the years who've had even more heartbreaking reasons they missed their last day of work. Family emergencies, deaths, you name it.
But the one thing they all had in common was that they'd burned all sick time, vacation time and personal time early in the year - generally for "unscheduled vacation" (that is, calling in sick to stay at home and watch Jerry Springer) or because they were too hung over to come to work.
They then found themselves in a disciplinary status during each subsequent, post-exhausting of benefit leave (vacation, sick, personal) absence.
Once they'd reached a level of absenteeism, they removed my option to NOT terminate them. Yes, it's sad to see someone lose their job. No doubt about that.
But I've never fired someone who didn't cause the condition that resulted in their termination.
There's nothing I hate more than to fire someone for attendance issues.
In this type of he-said she-said cases, I'll automatically take the position of employers. A truly competent employee is extremely rare & worth his/her weight in gold and should be held at all costs--this I've learned from a little managing experience. They wouldn't have fired her if she was a good employee, period.
We even got to know the sounds she was going to make when she called in. Yup, we photographed the furniture being delivered on one of those "paid" sick days.
"But the one thing they all had in common was that they'd burned all sick time, vacation time and personal time early in the year - generally for "unscheduled vacation" (that is, calling in sick to stay at home and watch Jerry Springer) or because they were too hung over to come to work.
They then found themselves in a disciplinary status during each subsequent, post-exhausting of benefit leave (vacation, sick, personal) absence."
Absolutely agree with you 100%. After 15 years in management it still amazes me when I have to terminate someone for attendance. All of the places I've worked have had time/attendance policies in the most concrete of terms and it doesn't take a genius to interpret them. Work your schedule shifts, miss so many shifts, you're terminated. Also, I've never worked for a company where FMLA absences counted towards the attendance policy.
I have also had to pick up and drop off my husband for countless lengthy deployments (at unimaginable times of the day), but I still managed to make it to work on my scheduled days!!