We spend almost more than half of our day with our co-workers. For some, their co-workers are like friends. We work together, celebrate successes together, face failures together, complain about our bosses, have good days and bad. And yet sometimes, when we lose one of our co-workers, we don’t know how to grieve their death. Especially when our relationship is restricted to the workspace, and thought we share more than a cordial relationship with them, we may not consider them as friends. As a result, we fail to realize how much of a role they play in our lives.
Our friends and family may be unaware of their existence, and their friends and family of ours. This makes the grieving more difficult as people around don’t realize the kind of impact our co-worker might have had on our lives. We might feel unsure about the extent to which we can and should involve ourselves in the death rites. As a result, we may feel alone in our grieving process. The loss may even affect our work for some time, making it hard for us to concentrate, or feel a little lost.
As a society, death is not something that is widely spoken about or openly discusses. People often feel ashamed to grieve openly due to the fear of being judged for not being strong enough. This applies more so in a workplace environment where one is expected to keep their emotions aside for the most part.
The following tips might help you cope with the loss of a co-worker:
- Acknowledge the role they played in the organization and for each worker. A discussion around the kind of impact the co-worker had on every employee’s life might make one feel that they are allowed to grieve.
- Give yourself, and others the time and space to grieve. Understand that not everyone may cope with the loss at the same pace. Be kind to your co-workers.
- Make use of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to get a professional counselor who can help you through this grieving process. Grief groups can be created for this purpose as well. One can use one-on-one counseling as well if their company has the provision and if they feel the need for it.
- Do something for the family. This can be done at an individual level, with some co-workers as a team, or on behalf of the entire organization.
Dr Prerna Kohli India’s Top Psychologist Talks about Coping with the Death of a Co-worker - Attend the funeral.
- Organize a memorial service. Just the sharing of one’s memories can be quite therapeutic for some.
- One can also create a small memorial in the workplace as a token of appreciation for the co-worker’s contribution.
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