Supporting Employees Coping with Grief in the Workplace

Grief, bereavement, and the loss of loved ones are, unfortunately, an inevitable part of our lives. Grief impacts not only individuals’ personal lives but also their professional lives. There is no one way of grieving, and it can look different for people. Grief can often be accompanied by physical responses like fatigue, numbness, nausea, muscular pain, stomach upset, and disturbed sleep patterns. In addition to the physical responses, grief is often accompanied by emotional/psychological responses like anxiety, sadness, stress, demotivation, frustration, anger, and denial. Some people also experience cognitive responses like difficulties with concentration, distraction, procrastination, and poor decision-making. 

This article provides the readers with the multifarious negative influences of grief in the business context and gives practical means through which organizations can foster a culture of care and comfort among their employees who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

Understanding the Impact of Grief in the Workplace

Grief can affect individuals and groups in an organization in a variety of ways. What follows are the five key aspects that demonstrate its influence on the work context:

1. Reduced Job Satisfaction and Morale: Grief can significantly affect job satisfaction, morale, and overall productivity in an organization.
2. Coping Mechanisms at Work: Grieving individuals may resort to overworking or underworking as a coping mechanism, leading to fluctuations in performance.
3. Quality of Output: These coping behaviors can result in noticeable changes in the quality of work, deliverables, services, and outcomes.
4. Organizational Response Matters: How an organization and employer respond to a grieving individual can have lasting effects on employee morale, the employer-employee relationship, and the broader work environment.
5. Consequences of Unsupported Grief: Unsupported grief in the workplace has been linked to an unsupportive work environment, low job satisfaction, lack of motivation. Holding space for people’s grief can be supportive for both the individual and the organization.

How to Support Grief in the Workplace 

Creating a work environment where employees are comfortable while going through a crisis of grief involves a multi-faceted strategy of empathy and comprehension. It is important to establish clear guidelines to provide consistent support: 

1. Inclusion of grief and bereavement leave policies and guidelines in work contracts.  These policies should prioritize employee mental health care and time off for grieving employees. 
2. Respecting individual needs and timelines. Providing a safe space to acknowledge their emotions and experiences can help in coping with grief. Creating room for communication, flexibility, accommodations, and delegation of work to other professionals for a temporary period will result in better headspace and an expressive work environment.
3. Providing a safe space fosters care and support in the workplace. Regular check-ins and team-building exercises for all stakeholders in the organization. The leadership management could also lead by example to model compassionate and supportive interactions with team members. 
4. Prioritizing mental health awareness, sensitizations, and trainings in the workplace to sensitize all employees to how they could respond to someone who is experiencing mental health concerns or is grieving the loss of a loved one.
5. Making mental health care accessible to the grieving individual, for example, by providing mental health resources and a referral list of reliable and inclusive therapists or group therapy services, if needed.

Prioritizing Mental Health Awareness and Resources

Employers should provide employees with the knowledge and resources needed to care for themselves and support their colleagues. A workplace prioritizing mental health tends to have an extremely well-communicated team. Better communication can be achieved by following these below mentioned measures:

• Begin by creating awareness among employees about the importance of emotional health by starting such programs as mental health support and grief first responder training.
• Next, ensure the availability of mental health support services at the workplace:  It includes information on mental health, and an accessible, inclusive list of therapists or both for individuals seeking help or group therapy services.

Creating Space for Grief and Growth

According to David Kessler, “Grief is work; avoiding grief is even more work.” Acknowledgment is the first step towards dealing with a problem. Once that is done, taking initiatives with proactive and compassionate support is a huge step forward towards the success of the organization. Therefore, making guidelines clear in this process also plays a key role in ensuring a thriving workplace. It is the responsibility of employers to be aware of and provide the necessary support to grieving employees, thus making the job easier for them.