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Comment by cweill | Hacker News Reader

I've been working a Full Time Employee in the industry for over 8 years at multiple companies. Never once has HR done anything remotely useful to help me when there were family problems or tragedy, except maybe a couple weeks of paid leave.

But I would like to hear the take from a founder who built an HR team to know if maybe I am missing something.

I'm really curious if it's really different being an employee vs a contractor in that respect.

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>> I've been working a Full Time Employee in the industry for over 8 years at multiple companies. Never once has HR done anything remotely useful to help me when there were family problems or tragedy, except maybe a couple weeks of paid leave.

I’m curious (genuinely) what the company could have done different for you in these cases? Personally I wouldn’t expect anything from the company other than paid leave/general empathy from managers with amount of leave varying depending on the loss (e.g. loss of a partner requiring more time than loss of a grandparent). I’m not sure what else I would want from my company or what they could offer.

I thought the same thing. The only thing I'd want from an employer would be time away and space to deal with things on my own or with family/friends. No texts, calls, emails about anything work related. If you have social connections at work, some show of support from colleagues (cards, flowers, calls, donations, etc) may be appropriate, but I would not expect that. Struggling to think of anything else most employers should be expected to do.

Our company offers its US employees access to a service called Wellthy. It is good to know that when you are dealing with issues in your personal life you can reach out to a dedicated, named individual that has expertise in the area you are struggling and that is there to help you navigate and organize. Even if it's just for the feeling that you are not alone.

Similar programs are available to employees in other countries.

...and for the non-US?

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