Grief is often associated with bereavement. But in working life, grief appears in many forms.
It can follow illness, divorce, fertility struggles, burnout, redundancies, or other major life transitions. These experiences affect concentration, relationships, leadership and team dynamics.
Yet most organizations lack the language and structure to address grief in a professional way. Instead, they respond to the symptoms – performance concerns, withdrawal, absenteeism – without recognizing what may be driving them.
Research shows that 94% of people experiencing grief struggle to concentrate, and 91% report reduced productivity. In any team of ten people, someone is likely carrying a significant loss right now. The question is not whether grief is present in your organization. It is whether your organization is equipped to recognize it.
A short report on loss in the workplace
I have put together a short report exploring how grief and loss impact people at work – and why it often goes unnoticed.
It’s not about having all the answers, but about starting to see what is already there.
Why grief is difficult for organizations to address
In many organizations, grief does not have a clear place.
It differs from work environment responsibilities, rehabilitation processes, leadership development, and performance management — yet it can affect all of these at once.
Managers may sense that something deeper is happening but feel uncertain about how to respond. HR professionals are often asked to support situations that are complex but poorly defined. And without shared language and structure, organizations risk responding inconsistently, or not at all.
This is not a failure of care. It is a failure of clarity. Most organizations have never been given a framework for grief, so when it arrives, they respond with the tools they have. Those tools were built for different problems.
An organizational perspective on grief
My work approaches grief in the workplace from an organizational perspective.
The focus is not therapy or individual rapport. It is not about turning managers into counselors or asking employees to share more than they are comfortable with.
Instead, the aim is to help organizations develop a shared language for loss, so that responses become more intentional, more consistent, and more appropriate to the situation.
When grief is named and acknowledged, its impact on performance is shorter and less severe. Employees who feel seen and supported are more likely to remain engaged and stay with the organization. This is not a compassion initiative. It is a perception shift with measurable business consequences.
Workshops and conversations
I offer workshops, courses and talks for HR teams, leadership groups and managers.
These sessions explore:
- What grief in working life is – and what it is not
- Common situations where grief affects performance and collaboration
- Why organizations often struggle to respond
- Realistic steps organizations can take
Why this work matters
Organizations cannot remove grief from working life.
But we can develop better ways of understanding and responding to it.
When grief becomes speakable and structured, both people and organizations are better supported.