Waitrose employee was denied bereavement leave. Then her boss said ‘aw sad times’

A TikTok video shared by a woman who says she previously worked at Waitrose has drawn attention online after she described being ignored when she requested time off for a funeral. The video, posted under the username @emmaaaemmaaaemmaaa, has generated hundreds of comments from viewers sharing similar accounts of their own workplace experiences.

In the video, the woman, identified as Emma, said she applied and emailed for time off to attend a funeral but was ignored. She said she then phoned her employer, and her boss “clearly didn’t believe” her, asking who had passed away before responding, “aw sad times then.”

The video’s on-screen text lays out the sequence of events, while Emma performs a series of exaggerated facial expressions throughout the clip. Her caption for the video simply reads, “Hate that place,” alongside the hashtags “fyp” and “waitrose.” 

Comment section fills with similar accounts from other retail workers

The video’s comment section includes a large number of responses from users who said they had experienced comparable treatment at Waitrose or other retailers. One user named Evie commented that she had quit Waitrose after working there for two weeks. Another user, izzy, replied that she had left after just two days.

In the same thread, Evie added that she started working nights at the store and said it “was honestly hell.” A different commenter, Cheryl, wrote that she had been a “WR” employee for 28 years and said she had never had a problem getting time off, to which another user replied, “Good for you?”

A user described starting a summer job at Waitrose before sixth form and said she had told the company upfront that she was unsure whether she could keep her assigned shifts once her schedule was set. According to her comment, staff told her this would be fine and that they could change the shifts, but said this did not happen. 

She said her mother would drive to bring her in on time, and that despite averaging around five minutes late, the company logged the lateness and required her to come in for a 45-minute shift on a day she was not scheduled to work, to complete a task she said she did not normally do. She said she was told she had not given proper notice.

Emma replied to her comment describing a similar experience, saying she had another job and was scheduled for a shift that conflicted with hours she said she had disclosed during her interview. She said she was told it was “too late to change” the schedule despite raising the conflict beforehand. Other workers have described similarly abrupt treatment over scheduling, including one case where an expectant mother says she was fired shortly after reaching 30 weeks of pregnancy.

Elsewhere in the comments, a user named Matilda wrote that she had worked at Waitrose for three years and said she loved it, adding that some branches seemed worse than others. Emma responded that experiences “all vary” and said she was glad Matilda had a positive one.

Another commenter, Vicky, said she had worked at Waitrose and was told staff had to give 18 months’ notice for time off, which she said applied even to university students requesting time off for exams. Emma replied that the job was “the WORST” she had ever had and said she now gets “scared” when entering Waitrose stores. A user responded to Vicky’s comment by calling the policy “ridiculous.” Unpaid or unfairly treated labor has drawn similar attention elsewhere, including a case in which a disabled worker was fired after years of unpaid work at a supermarket once his family asked that he be paid.

Waitrose has not publicly responded to the claims made in the video or the accompanying comments.