At one of the best companies I ever worked for, we had an employee who unexpectedly lost his sister with whom he was very close. I never got the full story, but it was sudden and tragic.

H.R. and his manager sat down with him when he went on extended leave to go over the over the policy for how much time he could take and then basically told him “fuck the policy, take all the time you need and let us know when you’re ready to come back.”

I really liked that company until private equity ruined it.