Coping with Grief: How Can Employees Access Support?

Grief is a deeply personal and emotional journey, but it often finds its way into our professional lives uninvited and have a negative effect on our work, attentiveness, and engagement. Workers who are in mourning in their workplace and, in particular, in their careers can get tremendous help in facing this difficult period. The first and most necessary thing to do is to know that grief is not a weakness or an illness but a natural response to the loss of a person we loved.

Grief touches everyone differently, and during such times, the support of a caring team can make all the difference. In moments of loss, quiet acts of solidarity and genuine sensitivity can offer comfort that words often can’t.

Holding Space for Grief in the Workplace

Some people find comfort in small, personal rituals that help them stay connected to the memories of their loved ones. One person shared how taking regular walks in a park, where she once spent time with her grandfather talking about their shared love for food, animals, and nature, became a gentle way to revisit those cherished conversations.

Grief is not a sign of weakness but a way of holding space for the love, care, and fondness that we experience for our dear and special ones. Grief is not an illness but a response to loss and death. Grief doesn’t come with a guidebook, timeline, or clear boundaries.

The experience of grief can be intense and may blur the lines between our personal and professional lives; hence, it is important to acknowledge and hold space for grief. Earlier understandings and models of grief have looked at it from a severely pathological and clinical lens; the idea that grief needs to be treated or recovered from has been understood from an individualistic perspective that emphasizes coping with grief individually.

Yet grief is more than just a personal experience—it often requires a relational and communal lens. The bond with those who have passed often continues beyond their death through stories, conversations, fond recollections, shared learnings, memoirs, and meaningful rituals or rites of passage. Grieving as a process may require a community of support and care from friends, family, and the work context.

How Can Employees Access Support While Dealing with Grief?

While grief is personal, accessing grief support at work can be both healing and empowering. Employees can take several steps to receive care and compassion in the workplace.

Acknowledging Grief

Acknowledging and holding space for grief and the emotions and experiences that come along with it is the first step. One may experience physical, emotional, and cognitive responses to grief.

Grief may also show up in the work context in the form of changes in productivity, ability to deliver on commitments, cognitive processes, and how one feels. It is important to be kind to yourself, not to shame yourself for grieving, and to allow time to grieve.

Connecting with the Manager and Other Team Members

Sharing your loss with team members and managers can help them hold space for your experience and emotions during this difficult time.

It may also support making accommodations and flexibility arrangements for the grieving employee. Offering flexibility with workload and time off can be a meaningful way to support. Emotional support, a listening ear, and sharing of responsibilities with other team members could also be helpful during this difficult time.

Respecting the Pace of Grieving

The one-size-fits-all approach does not hold true for grief. It is important to acknowledge what grief looks like for you and the nature of support that might be useful for you in the work context.

Transparent and honest communication with your manager about which tasks or projects you feel ready or not ready to take on can be helpful. This would help plan your work role and engagement for the next few weeks or months following the loss.

Asking for Support and Professional Help

Accessing and asking for support is a sign of resilience. The grieving employee could access support from family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, grief support groups, or the community at large.

Connecting with people who have experienced or are experiencing grief may also bring resonance, solidarity, and a sharing of helpful ways of coping with loss.

Professional help must be sought by visiting a trusted psychologist or psychiatrist if someone is struggling to deal with grief and its effects on other areas of life, like work and social relationships, among others.

Taking Breaks

Taking breaks from or in between work has been useful for some grieving employees. Breaks can involve anything the employee finds comforting, such as:

• Eating wholesome meals
• Drinking water
• Catching your breath
• Going for a walk
• Speaking to a colleague at work

Breaks allow you a moment to hold space for your emotions, experiences, and memories.

Celebrating the Life of Loved Ones

Remembering and celebrating the life of a loved one can allow a grieving individual to hold space for stories, shared memories, and connections to honor the life and legacy of the person.

Engaging in personal rituals or heartfelt traditions allows those bonds to continue. Through these moments, their voice and presence can still be felt in our lives today.

Facing Grief Together at Work

The journey of grief cannot be defined by a strict timeline or a universal model. As Lorraine Hedtke and John Winslade put it:

“We have held to the belief that the best way through the pain of grief is not to follow a prefabricated model but to craft one’s own responses.”

The workplace is the essential location in which workers can be empowered to face grief in a healthy and supportive way. Organizations can support grieving employees by creating space for open dialogue and offering flexibility around work hours. Encouraging breaks and connecting individuals with helpful resources also shows that their grief is met with care and understanding.

Grieving is a part of being human. With support, patience, and understanding, the burden of grief can feel lighter—even in the spaces where we strive, connect, and grow together.