Grief in the Workplace – Why We Need to Start Talking About It

Grief is part of life – including at work. What happens when a colleague dies, an employee loses their mother, or someone on the team suddenly stops showing up? And how can companies respond meaningfully without overwhelming people?

In an interview with famPlus, I sat down with Tanja Gerlinger and Johannes Winklmair to talk about exactly that: grief in the workplace, the role of leaders – and why this topic finally deserves the space it needs.

Prefer listening over reading? You can find the full interview here:

Why Grief Is Not a Private Matter

Imagine this: It's Monday morning, team meeting. Someone asks what's on the agenda. And a colleague says quietly: "I've lost my mother. I'm grieving." The topic is immediately pushed aside – no time for that.

That is the reality in many companies. We have hundreds of meetings on time management, feedback, and productivity. When it comes to what makes the person we spend 40 hours a week with who they are, though – silence falls quickly.

The truth is: grief comes regardless. Sooner or later, every person in a company is affected – as someone grieving themselves, as a colleague, or as a leader. The only question is whether we are prepared when it happens.

What Grief Does to the Body – and Why That Affects Work

Grief is not just a feeling in the head. It is physical. Anyone who knows deep joy – that tingling sensation when something wonderful happens – also knows its opposite: the pressure on the chest, the heavy breathing, the tension.

Grieving people are often unable to perform at their full potential. They make more mistakes, struggle to concentrate, are physically present – yet inwardly far away. And that affects the company in very real ways:

• Who takes over when someone is suddenly absent?

• Who calls the clients?

• Who looks after the team when a team member is suddenly gone?

  
  

These are not emotional questions. They are operational questions. And that is precisely why grief in the workplace is a business issue.

Numbers That Show: This Affects All of Us

Sometimes it helps to see reality in numbers:

• One in three to four women experiences a miscarriage – an often invisible loss, even in the middle of working life.

• Over 10,000 suicides per year in Germany leave behind family members, colleagues, and friends.

• Over 500,000 new cancer diagnoses annually – around 35% of them among people of working age.

• 15–17% of deaths affect people during their working lives.

This means: in every office, every department, every team, there is someone who is quietly carrying something. We just often don't see it.

What Companies Can Do Right Now

The good news: no large strategy documents or complex programmes are needed. It starts with small steps.

1. Develop a contingency plan

Who steps in when a colleague is suddenly absent? Which tasks need to be redistributed, and how? These are factual questions – and they can be answered during calm times, so that no one has to improvise in a crisis.

2. Raise awareness among leaders

Leaders are not therapists – and they don't need to be. What they can do: pay attention. Ask: "How are you really doing right now?" And: "What do you need?"

A simple, honest approach can achieve more than any process manual.

3. Offer flexible solutions

Adjusted working hours, remote work, a break on a difficult day – these are options that can help stabilise grieving employees. Grief is as individual as a fingerprint. What one person needs is not what another needs.

4. Enable professional support

Grief companionship, grief groups, external resources – these are not signs of weakness, but of strength. In the famPlus podcast, we share the story of a pilot project: 20,000 employees were informed about grief groups via newsletter. The spots were fully booked within four minutes. Eight groups, all full – for weeks. That shows just how great the need is.

What a Grief Group Really Looks Like

Many people imagine a grief group as a heavy, sombre gathering. The reality is quite different.

Yes, everyone is nervous at the start. Everyone wonders: "Can I cry here? Do I have to speak? What if I don't want to say anything at all?"

And then: someone begins to speak. The atmosphere relaxes. There are tears – and a great deal of laughter. Memories are shared. People realise: I am not alone. What I feel is normal.

A group runs for six sessions of 90 minutes each. Many people say after the very first session that it was the best thing they did for themselves during that time.

You could call it a first-aid course for the grieving. Only gentler.

What Grieving People Really Need

As a grief companion, I experience it time and again: grieving people do not need perfect answers. They need someone who listens. Who is there. Who doesn't run away.

The most important phrase I know: those who speak can be helped.

This applies to those who grieve – and to companies. Start talking. Ask the questions. Don't assume the other person already knows what they need. Ask them. And if you, as a leader, a colleague, or simply a person, don't know what to do: that is completely alright.

Conclusion: Grief Belongs at the Centre – Not on the Margins

We live in a time when companies speak more than ever about humanity. About wellbeing, belonging, psychological safety. And that is a good thing.

Humanity does not end where loss begins. On the contrary: that is precisely where it starts.

Grief in the workplace is not a niche topic. It is the topic. Because we are all human – with histories, with people we love, with losses. And because work can be a place that holds us. If we allow it.

Would you like to bring the topic of grief into your company – as a workshop, talk, or grief companionship? I look forward to hearing from you.