“Who died?”

A couple years ago I was working night shift overseas. One night while I was at work alone, I received the call that my mentor back home had died suddenly. I was a complete wreck, but there was nobody that could come in to cover my shift for me.

When my supervisor came in that morning, he saw me and sarcastically commented on how rough I looked before asking “who died?” I didn’t have the energy to be respectful, so completely deadpan I looked him in the eyes and said “my mentor back home. Got the call last night.” His face went white and he stumbled over himself trying to apologize.

Our boss was good friends with my mentor, so when she showed up several hours earlier than usual to check in and share our grief, my supervisor got a second dose of his discomfort. He had always been pretty nasty to me so it felt good to see him squirm.