"I don't offer my condolences, because I don't have to."
My husband's old boss was absolutely terrible. My dad died unexpectedly on a Saturday and my husband called in on Monday, letting him know what happened and that we were downstate, figuring out funeral plans and such. My dad was more of a father to my husband than his own dad was, and he was devastated by the loss. We also had a 4 month old baby at the time.
We'll call his boss T. During this call, T said, "I'm not giving you bereavement because it's up to my discretion, and I don't offer my condolences because I don't have to."
After the funeral, we decided we were going to move into my dad's house downstate. My husband went to work to get his toolbox loaded up into our truck and T was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, and said, "You're ready to get back to work now?" My husband said, "Actually, I'm just here to pack my shit and leave." You could hear a pin drop. T was stunned. I was standing around the corner, T couldn't see me. He started berating my husband, you could tell he was stunned because he was stuttering. Everyone in the shop watched as T had a meltdown, they couldn't hold back their laughter.
When T saw me, he started in on me, too. I used to bring homemade baked goods into the shop for everyone, he knew me pretty well. He said it was ridiculous that I needed my husband home when our son left the NICU. He told me that his wife had twins in the NICU and it was HER job to take care of them and that he worked the whole time. I simply said, "Your poor wife." He then went on to tell me he was divorced when the boys were young and that one of his twins killed himself at 16. I said, "I wonder *why*." He continued with how it's important to work. I told him that this wasn't a "pissing contest" and that we were done here.
T had given my husband hell months prior, when we had our son nearly 3 months prematurely, didn't want to give him time off when he was born, let him know how inconvenient it was for him, and then made him return to work the day after our son came home from the NICU. My husband was mentally checked out from that point forward, quitting was easy, rewarding, and a big weight off his chest.
There was a rumor floating around that T would be getting promoted and overseeing another department. The entire department let management know they would walk if T became their boss. T never did get that promotion. Fuck T. source