Grief in the Workplace

Tips for Supervisors

• Make contact with your bereaved employee quickly.
• Be forthright and upfront in offering condolences. Listen and respect confidentiality. Expect sadness and tears.
• Know the company policy on bereavement and personal time.
• Be as flexible and negotiable as possible in allowing your employee to have the time and space to deal with their loss. Arrange for back-ups and replacements necessary to cover the person’s work.
• Get information on services, funerals and memorials to the person’s colleagues in a timely fashion.
• If appropriate, help to organize some form of group acknowledgment to support the employee, such as issuing a card or flowers, or planning group attendance at a memorial ceremony.
• Ensure that support mechanisms continue when the person returns to work. The first few days may be difficult.
• You may want to keep back-ups or a buddy system in place, and check in with the employee periodically to see how they are doing. Expect productivity, but be patient and reasonable.
• Be sensitive to the cycle of upcoming holidays or trigger points that might be difficult for the employee.
• If your workplace is diverse, recognize that other cultures may have customs, rituals or ways of dealing with loss that differ from those to which we are accustomed.
• Watch for warning signs of prolonged grief and ongoing performance issues. Unkempt appearance, severe withdrawal, substance abuse, or other uncharacteristic behaviors might be warning signs that your employee needs professional help, and you are in a unique position to observe this need and recommend the help.