Idea in Brief
The Challenge
Workplace culture is often inhospitable to the bereaved. Managers need guidance on how to humanely help workers return to productivity.
The Insight
While rarely unfolding in a neat progression, grief involves three phases: anger, despair, and a slow reinvestment in life. Managers should understand the phases and the most helpful response to each.
The Interventions
Immediately after a death, acknowledging the loss without making demands is the best a manager can do. After grieving employees are back on the job, managers should be patient with inconsistency in performance and attitude. And as workers eventually emerge from mourning, managers should support this opportunity for growth.
Grief is a universal human experience, yet workplace culture is often inhospitable to people suffering profound loss. “There are many taboos at work,” Laszlo Bock told us, “and death is one of the greatest.” The former Google chief people officer and a cofounder of Humu, a Silicon Valley start-up dedicated to helping executives humanize the workplace, was celebrating Día de los Muertos on the day we spoke. It was November 2, and following a coworker’s suggestion, Humu had adopted the Mexican tradition of honoring the departed. “We have the lace paper flyers in the office, and the candy stalls, and people have put up photos of family members who have passed away,” Bock explained. “We made offerings to their spirits. We’re doing it because we want to make it OK to have conversations about death, to recognize that everybody is human.”
