Coping with Workplace Grief:Dealing with Loss, Trauma, and Change

Sources of Loss and Grief in the Workplace
Ongoing Workplace Change
Mergers, Layoffs, and Reorganization
The Effects of Workplace Change
Co-Worker Deaths, Accidents, and Disasters
The Stages of Workplace Transformation

The Complexities of Grief
Attachment, Bonding, and Loss
Defining Grief and Its Causes
Why All Loss Is Like a Death
Different Tears for Different Peers
Bowlby?s Basic Phases of Loss and Mourning
Kübler-Ross Descriptions of Reactions to Loss

The Effects of Grief on Employees
What Grieving Employees Are Feeling
Expressions of Grief in the Workplace
Changes in Employee Attitudes and Behaviors
Grief Reactions to Change-Loss
Why Productivity Plummets Amid Grief
The Pitfalls of Not Attending to Grief
The Three Sources of Unresolved Grief
The Costs of Storing, Rather Than Addressing, Grief
New Meanings for the New Workplace

Helping Employees Cope
Workplace Change and Loss: The Burdens and Benefits
The Four Tasks of Workplace Mourning
Helping People Heal by Listening
Do?s and Don?ts for Supporting Grieving Employees
Quick Tips for Helping
Ten Guidelines for Organizations Undergoing Change
Grief Support During Organizational Transition
A Final Statement

After completing this course, students will know how to:

Identify sources of change in the workplace that may trigger feelings of loss or grief Discover the impact of threatened or lost workplace attachments Understand various reactions to workplace change caused by reorganization, downsizing, trauma, death, illness, impairment, and other actions outside their control Learn how unacknowledged reactions to loss and grief can affect productivity Acquire techniques for supporting people in grief, including recognizing when someone needs professional counseling Recognize when they are experiencing reactions to change and explore techniques for dealing with their own sense of loss or grief

Prerequisites