Employers grossly underestimate the impact of
grief in the workplace. Even this is an understatement. You
rarely hear the word grief used when describing loss of
productivity or being a cost to a company. The type of
words you do hear to describe loss of productivity could be
depression, stress, injuries or some kind of substance
abuse.
The fact that grief remains a hidden issue only
compounds the problem and prevents possible solutions.
Solutions could help employees, foster increased employee
loyalty and reduce the potential loss of productivity for
employers. Sounds like a win-win situation to
me!!
As with the rest of our culture, we expect people
to "get on with life", get "closure", "buck up" and many
more cliches we regularly hear. The lack of understanding
in our culture, which includes the workplace makes this a
serious issue to employers.
The Grief Recovery Institute in 2003 estimated the
lost productivity in the USA due to the death of a loved
one would be $37.5 billion dollars. The other losses such
as divorce, family crisis, pet loss, financial loss to name
a few totaled a yearly total of $75 billion dollars.
Employers - wake up!
Companies do not have to spend a lot of money to
increase awareness and understanding of grief in their
workplaces. Just doing this would start the process of
improving a corporate culture for those returning to the
workplace after a death of a loved one.
There are many ways that can cost businesses money.
These include absenteeism, mistakes being made, lack of
concentration, employees leaving employment, workplace
injuries, missed deadlines and irritability - to name a
few. These are not surprising as the effects of grief are
felt physically, emotionally, spiritually and
cognitively.
What is obvious about the different ways productivity
is affected is that it affects everyone - no one is immune
to these reactions. The effects of grief can equally affect
a CEO making decisions concerning thousands of dollars to a
construction worker on a site. Both situations can have a
negative effect to the bottom line of a
business.
Organizations need to start to address this issue. It
should start with Human Resources Managers. Many in this
position also find addressing grief a difficult thing to
do. The need for information on grief is required for all
levels of staff from the front line to the CEO. There is a
need for a formal process to disseminate information to
other staff when an employee experiences a death in their
family. This would ensure all staff receives the same
information at the same time.
There are many types of activities that will provide
comfort to those grieving. Allowing some staff to attend
the funeral is one gesture that will mean a lot to the
bereaved. If there is an Employee Assistance Program
available to staff, the use of this should be encouraged.
Supervisors need to have regular contact with staff for
many weeks and months after the death. The inclusion of
staff the bereaved staff member works with is essential to
allow a productive and positive re-entry into the workplace
after a death.
People who are grieving need to talk and hopefully
some extra "chatting" will be overlooked when they come
back to the workplace. It is positive when people return to
work for many reasons. There is a much more positive affect
achieved when people return to a workplace that understands
this difficult time.
A mistake both supervisors and staff make is to think
that these accommodations may have to continue for quite
some time at some level. The death of a significant person
in your life affects you for a long time. An employee not
performing well six months after the death could absolutely
still be feeling the effects of the death. Supervisors
often do not connect these dots and assume there has been a
change in work performance. A sad employee can often be
interpreted as a bad employee.
For many reasons stated in this article and the
millions of Baby Boomers that will soon (if not already)
feel the effect of their parents' death, companies need to
make changes to their corporate culture that will help
their employees and minimize the loss of productivity they
most definitely will feel.
Jane Galbraith, BScN, R.N., is the author of "Baby
Boomers Face Grief - Survival and Recovery". Her book is
available through the author directly at jane.galbraith@sympatico.ca
or amazon, or Trafford Publishing. More
information about the book can be found at www.trafford.com/05-2319.
