A Study to Understand the Impact of Bereavement Grief on the Workplace

Abstract

Although most employees and business owners or operators will likely experience the death of one or more loved ones over their work lives, attention has not focused on how bereavement grief impacts the workplace. A study was conducted for foundational information. Data on the annual incidence of bereavement leaves and related matters were collected from a relatively representative sample of small, medium, and large Canadian organizations. Two of every three organizations had 1+ employees take a bereavement leave last year, with 3.2% of all employees taking a bereavement leave consisting of 2.5 days on average and often with additional travel and accommodation days. The findings suggest that more should be done by organizations to prepare for bereavement leaves and assisted work returns. This preparation is essential for the tsunami of bereavement grief in the years ahead as deaths increase rapidly in number with population aging.