Dealing with an employee's (possible) death

ste_t

Had a phone call today on my day off to let me know one of my guys is missing presumed dead. If you've seen the news story about the two guys cliff jumping in Anglesey last night, one declared dead on arrival at hospital, the other missing - thats him. His girlfriend & best mate were there aswell, (who both also work for me,) but by the time they had called for help it was too late. The boyfriend of the guy's sister also works for me, so the place has been suitably melancholy today.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how the hell to deal with this. My assistant has been great and sorted cover for the girlfriend & best mate so they can have some time off and I've sorted cover so that everyone can go to the memorial/funeral whenever that may be. Not really sure on what else I can/should do.

Anyone else had to deal with a situation like this? What did you do?

Cheers

Andy B

Might be an idea to talk to a professional who deals with these situations such a a bereavement counsellor to help guide you through what is a very hard situation to deal with

DF33

No, I'm not sure councelling is needed at your work place.
would suggest when one / some are upset or start talking, let it all happen whenever or in the middle of whatever is being done at that time at work. they will support each other.

Keeping the work place as just that without interfering will keep a sence of normality (ish) and consistency whilst allowing outpourings and discussions here and there.

Suggest the councelling - if necessary - is outside.

Just my opinion and I'm not trained in these matters.

Andy B

I'm not saying bring a counsellor into the workplace

I'm saying that the OP might want to talk to one to ask how to deal with their employees in this situation

DF33

And therefore influence the handling in the workplace rater than it being natural. That was my point.

You might be right though.

ste_t

Thanks for the input guys, some valid points for me to consider.

My gut instinct would be to stop the rest of the team discussing it during work time but make sure the management are all available to speak with them in private if needed. I suppose it is difficult to strike a balance with showing that you care and maintaining a professional working environment in such a circumstance.

Tact has never been my forte, so I may seek professional advice tomorrow - thanks for the advice Andy B

WisePranker

ste_t wrote:

Thanks for the input guys, some valid points for me to consider.

My gut instinct would be to stop the rest of the team discussing it during work time but make sure the management are all available to speak with them in private if needed. I suppose it is difficult to strike a balance with showing that you care and maintaining a professional working environment in such a circumstance.

Tact has never been my forte, so I may seek professional advice tomorrow - thanks for the advice Andy B

Whatever you do, don't try to stop people talking about it. It's only natural that people will want to talk to one another about it.
We had a colleague pass away earlier this year and our management dealt with it exceptionally well. They stood us down from work the morning they announced it to us and then kept us all informed of anything that happened regarding the funeral until the day. They also made themselves available for anyone to speak to about it, not as counsellors, just as someone to listen to us.

ricardo_smooth

IMO it's a case of giving the directly involved as much time as they need (obviously), Have an 'open door' policy for any employees who need to talk about it and keep everyone informed as best you can provided it's what the direct family want.

I know the outlook isn't good, but try to keep people positive about the situation until 100% facts come in.

If the situation needs it and there are no H&S implications, it's only right that work would stop for a given timeframe (1/2 day maybe) should it be necessary for people to attend an un-wanted service (you know what i'm getting at but that's jumping to conclusions).

Chin up and hope positive news comes today

UncleFred

Don't know if this helps at all.

I used to be on a marine Search & Rescue Crew, whenever we had a shout we used to debrief afterwards, this invariably ended up being a group chat about what happened, how we handled it, what we could have done better, there was a lot of dark humour in those chats, but everyone was encouraged to talk and not hold back. We never criticised anything anybody said and we were completely open.

Different circumstance I know, but my point was, it's not healthy to stop the discussion from happening. People will talk about it at a level that they are comfortable with. Let your workers know that if they do wish to talk about it, they should do in a respectful way, avoiding gossip & rumour.

Raymondavalon

I've been at two companies in the UK where death of a staff member has occurred (outside of work hours)

The Modus Operandi seems to be that either the MD or HR person calls the staff into a general meeting area and makes the announcement about the death
The person then says that staff are free to come and discuss this with HR and counseling can be offered if needed.

The company representative then sends a card, flowers (or donation to a charity of the deceased's relatives' choice)
The company representative and a few close work colleagues usually attend the service too

edhornby

your HR director/team should be on point to assist with this

welshkev

edhornby wrote:

your HR director/team should be on point to assist with this

by the sound of it it's his company so he is the HR team :?

as said above, don't try and stop them talking about it amongst themselves, i think that'll make them feel resentful towards you and that you don't care.

the OP - what a shit, sad thing to happen..my condolances to all involved

Anonymous

Sorry to hear about this.

projectsome

We've had 2 people die from work, one died in a plane crash and the other had a heart attack at work. In both cases the location manager discussed it with their teams and took it from there. Basically took it one step at a time, whilst trying to keep everything running as normal.

ste_t

The guys at work have been fantastic and everyone has pulled together to help out. It's obviously a difficult time for all concerned but to hear exactly what happened in the words of his girlfriend is truly heartbreaking. I won't go into detail, but I wouldn't wish that experience on anybody. I just hope they find him soon for the sake of his family.

welshkev - not my company, but a small close knit one and the one person hr department works one day a week following a life threatening illness, so I had to take responsibility in the matter.