Grief Resources for Employers

Compiled by Lori S. Eberly, LCSW for Blackbird Benefit Collective, 2023

All employees experience grief and loss. While there are laws that protect employee’s rights to take medical leave or provide caregiving, for example, acknowledging and responding to the losses employees face is a compassionate and human-centered choice that fosters trust and belonging.

Losses employees may experience include, but are not limited to:

  • Death, illness, injury of self or someone in their circle

  • Divorce, breakups, miscarriage, retirement, moving, and pet death are examples of disenfranchised grief

  • Layoffs, terminations, promotions, regorganizations, mergers and acquisitions

  • Failed projects, successful projects, getting fired by a client, firing a client

  • Natural disasters, COVID, systemic violence, mass shootings, collective trauma

According to an article by Spring Health:

Awareness that loss comes from many aspects in a worker’s life can help People leaders identify even the subtlest signs of grief:

  • Inability to focus or make decisions

  • Lack of energy

  • Demonstrating a range of emotions in a short time—for example, tears to anger

  • Hyper-focused behavior

For more on how grief manifests at work, the full article is here

To better understand how grief impacts employees, these articles have been curated for your education.

  • This one is on the neuroscience of grief and how companies can care.

  • Click here for an inclusive approach to addressing grief in the workplace.

  • This author poses several reflective questions on loss, including, “Reflect on the way you’ve been responding to recent events and stories of mass suffering. Have you felt moved to take action? If so, what have you done? If not, what have you been doing instead?”

  • Suggestions for when a coworker dies can be found here

  • This article covers a few steps HR leaders can take to feel better equipped to deal with the emotions of losing employees, whether to layoffs, firing, or quitting.

  • Berkely put together Managing Workplace Reactions to Layoffs, which provides proven ways for management to reduce the negative effects on staff of cutbacks, reorganizations and layoffs. 

  • Mergers and Acquisitions are ripe with change and loss. Empathic Leadership is critical during these transitions.

Bereavement Leave Resources

Bereavement Leave: How to Prepare for the Unexpected - this article is a primer on understanding Bereavement Leave

For Employers re: Bereavement Leave Policies - additional Q&A on leave

While Bereavement Leave is a policy outlined in an employee handbook, I suggest we approach this leave grounded in compassion and curiosity.

  1. How might our bereavement leave be creative and human-centered?

  2. How are our company values reflected in this policy? Or not?

  3. Where can we add flexibility to this leave policy? 

    1. Do we limit whose death is “covered” in this leave? Why?

    2. Are there paid and unpaid options?

    3. Does leave need to be consecutive days or can we build in more variability?

    4. Are there work from home options or other shuffling of work hours that can be made?

    5. Are we requiring a death certificate or other proof? (Don’t)

  4. How does our policy include disenfranchised grief such as miscarriage, divorce, pet loss?

FMLA

FMLA applies to employers with 50 or more employees in the current or previous year. To be eligible for FMLA leave, employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), and have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave.

More on understanding the law here

Caregiving While Working

To better understand how FMLA relates to your company and employees, contact your internal HR representative or Kristen Cooper at kc@blackbirdbenefits.org.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

These programs provide confidential, free services to help employees with:

  • Marital or family problems

  • Mental health disorders

  • Substance abuse

  • Financial stress

  • Legal problems

  • Bereavement

  • Caregiver stress

But they are woefully underutilized. While 97% of companies with more than 5000 employees offer them, less that 10% of employees access this benefit.

If you have an EAP benefit or other employee wellbeing programs:

  1. How can you consistently educate employees about this benefit?

  2. How might you address the stigma and fear associated with using EAP?

  3. What can you do to better understand the barriers of accessing EAP or other mental health benefits for employees experiencing loss?

  4. Do employees have names and faces associated with your EAP program? And if not, how might you change this?

Accessing Mental Health benefits and other resources

Make sure that employees understand if they have mental health benefits connected to any health insurance plans available.

Accessing a therapist when one is grieving is a mental challenge. Psychology Today can help find counselors in your state: www.psychologytoday.com

Every county has a mental health crisis number. The 24/7 number for anyone feeling suicidal is 988

Facilitators

Navigating conversations about grief and loss can feel overwhelming. If you want help coaching, planning, or facilitating these conversations or responding to personal and collective loss where you work, contact: