When Grief Comes to Work: Bold Policies, Real Support, Better Outcomes (NO PRESS PERMITTED)
& Jim Clark
& Michelle Julian Atkins
"There is really no wrong thing to say if it comes from the right place."
What it was about
Bereavement is treated as a one-time, invisible life event in most workplaces, but up to 20% of employees may be grieving at any given time, and companies need to shift from event-based bereavement policies to building an ongoing grief-supportive culture backed by flexible policy, training, and free resources like the Grief Supportive Workplace Initiative.
By the numbers
Key notes
- Audit your bereavement policy to ensure it applies equally across the whole workforce regardless of seniority or role, since everyone deserves equal time to grieve.
- Let employees define who counts as a 'loved one' rather than restricting bereavement leave to spouse, child, or parent, since people are impacted by losses outside those categories.
- Build flexibility into when leave can be taken rather than requiring it be used immediately after the death, because grief and related logistics (probate, estate closure) are not linear and can resurface long after the first year.
Take this back Monday
Add an emergency-fund line for burial/memorial costs and let employees define 'loved one' beyond spouse, child, or parent.
Up to 20% of our workforce may be grieving right now, so we're moving bereavement from a one-time policy to an ongoing, trained-manager support culture.
Watch out for
- Saying nothing to a grieving employee out of fear of saying the wrong thing — silence signals that grief isn't something they can talk about, which is worse than an imperfect comment.
- Treating bereavement as a single point-in-time event (e.g., a fixed 3-5 day window right after the death) instead of recognizing grief as a non-linear process that resurfaces well past the first year.
- Assuming employees will abuse longer bereavement leave policies — data shows companies with longer bereavement periods actually see employees take fewer days than those with shorter policies.
Jim Clark spent 24 years climbing to senior VP at a newspaper before pivoting to lead Boys & Girls Clubs, now overseeing 5,500+ sites serving 4 million kids a year.
