Link: Grief at Work Literature Review
Link: Grief at Work Presentation
Work is a place dedicated to stated goals and objectives, commerce, and duties, but workplaces are also human places and are not immune from death, grief, and mourning. Grief at work comes in many ways from the deaths of workers, the deaths of loved ones, and the deaths of colleagues’ loved ones. Some workplaces have strong cultures that provide formal support for grieving workers including grief counseling, supportive colleagues, and generous bereavement policies. However, many organizations offer the bare minimum in bereavement leave and no formal support for grieving workers.
In February 2023, my workplace encountered two back to back deaths. The first was of the COO who had dedicated his life to the company, and the second was of a young consultant. The juxtaposition of these deaths and how they were announced, one in a formal email and the other a Teams chat, made me think about how we handle death and grief at work. I chose to write my capstone paper on the topic and developed a PowerPoint that could be used as a corporate workshop.