How to Support Your Staff After a Colleague’s Death

Just like we cannot always control incidences in our own lives, we also don’t have control over serious events happening at our workplaces. There are many ways staff can experience loss or traumatic events. Depending on the type of company you work for, there can be an opportunity to hire a professional speaker to support your staff’s needs after a loss or traumatic event. Here are a few things I would recommend thinking of, as someone who is trained as a grief therapist:

Check in with your own feelings

First of all, if you are reading this as a boss, HR person, or are in management- there needs to be recognition of how this event has affected you as well. Reflecting on what you are feeling, what support you have, and what you need to feel more supported is an important active step. Just like they teach us to put our own life vest on in an emergency, you have to check in with your emotional self before you check in with others. This allows for less potential risk of symptoms such as burnout, compassion fatigue, isolation, or even dissociation. I’m not saying you need to be “healed” before checking in with staff, more that there is a balance between caring for others and caring for yourself.

Recognize Shock & Grief Can be Different for Everyone

Everyone experiences emotions differently. If you are feeling this event has impacted the flow of your office, it might be time to hire a professional to provide support. Accepting that some staff members may act out more, or have more frequent breakdowns- its also helpful in addressing the dynamic of the group after a traumatic event. Letting go of some expectations, and recognizing that this has caused an affect on your workplace is important. The longer it is avoided, the longer your staff will probably operate at a different capacity.

Providing Resources

There are many options for resources that can be personalized to your staff. Maybe you already have an EAP in place, or are working with local therapists to set one up. An EAP is a program for staff to get a certain amount of therapy sessions paid for by their company before they can decide to continue paying for services themselves. Additionally, researching and providing a list of local therapist options that work with the topics your staff have gone through can also be supportive. Each group is different, and so there may be unique additional resources to your specific staff. (eg. maybe you work in a local law firm- and provide resources related to taking mental health days or PTO; maybe you are a yoga studio and offer a wellness walk for staff nearby if they get overwhelmed.) Having this at the ready, and accessible to all staff for a long period of time is important. As I mentioned above, some people might jump right back into work- and avoid their feelings. That doesn’t mean they won’t need resources eventually. So keeping a work bulletin board, pamphlet area, weekly newsletter- or some form of check in space can be a helpful way to support your staff.

Hire a Speaker

You knew it was coming, because this is part of what I do for a living! Hiring a professional therapist to speak to your staff is also an option. Different therapists may provide different options for what they bring and speak about to your staff. For example, I coordinate with the office I am working with to create a personalized and informative talk. My talks are about connecting with the staff and less about talking at the staff. We go over topics related to mental health support, community, resources, and mini skills to address what has happened. Depending on the type of talk you want, there are different packages that also provide activities to allow staff members to relax a bit while we discuss these topics. For more information please review my professional events page here.

Create Community Rituals

Finally, the last option I want to go over is creating a community ritual. If your staff have lost someone close to them, and are wanting to honor them, think about a way this can happen consistently. Maybe it is an annual event in their honor, a plaque of recognition, a photo on a community wall, as long as it feels supportive to staff to honor this person they have lost.

There is no one way to honor and process the death of a colleague. That is the bittersweetness of grief. Grief is different for us all. If you are doing your best to provide resources, support, community, and remembarance- then you truly are doing the best you can. In the end, nothing takes away the fact that this person is now gone.

My heart goes out to you in this time of grief. Please contact me if you are in need of local Western Washington Grief resources or are interested in booking an event.