Returning to Work Following Spousal Loss? The Experiences of Widowed Parents

Abstract

Families with children in the home who lose a parent to death are not only faced by bereavement but quite often a whole array of other changes. One area that has so far been overlooked in research is the return to work of the surviving parent. In this online survey of widowed parents, four out of five (81.6%, n=71) had experienced changes in their working or student conditions as a direct result of losing their partner. The experienced changes were mainly seen in relation to increased sick leave, reduced working hours, redundancy, and a change of jobs. Thematic analyses of participant responses to open-ended questions resulted in four different themes: Feeling overburdened, Grief as a process, Unaccommodating workplace, and Accommodating workplace. The results of this study highlight a need for focusing on the return to work of bereaved employees who have lost a co-parent.

Keywords

bereavement spousal loss grief workplace policy work-life balance

The special circumstances of losing a co-parent involves dealing with one’s own grief at the same time as having to take care of grieving children (Saldinger et al., 2004; Werner-Lin & Biank, 2012–2013; Worden, 1996; Yopp et al., 2015). Due to the timing of death in relation to the family life cycle, the surviving parent is likely to have a job or education-related responsibilities. It thus becomes pertinent to look at the intersection of the family and the workplace, such as the impact the death of a young spouse might have on the individual in relation to his or her work role and, in return, how a given workplace accommodates grieving employees.

Despite an estimated 1 in 10 of an organization’s workforce being directly affected by bereavement each year (McGuinness, 2007), little attention has been given to this area of research (Corden, 2016; Gibson et al., 2011; Russell, 1998; Thompson & Bevan, 2015; Wilson et al., 2019). In the words of Thompson (2007, p. 194), ‘[…] loss and grief in the workplace remain undertheorized, under-researched and undervalued’. A recent study of 131 Canadian organizations showed that 61% of the companies had at least one employee take bereavement leave within the last year (Wilson et al., 2019). The leave was, on average, 2.5 days paid leave and an average of 1.3 days additional leave per person for attending the funeral (Wilson et al., 2019). Interestingly, when initially approached by the researchers, most of the companies in the study did not collect data on bereavement leave but offered to provide the information at a later point in time (Wilson et al., 2019). A general lack of systematic collating of this type of data seems prevalent (Stephen et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2019). Even so, a Scottish study found that bereaved individuals were less likely than non-bereaved controls to be working during the year of bereavement, as well as two years after the loss (Stephen et al., 2015). In the following, we will look at how employees have experienced returning to work after the death of a close relative.

For some bereaved individuals, returning to work following bereavement can be perceived as a help (Charles-Edwards, 2001, 2009; Gibson et al., 2010, 2011; Hall et al., 2013; McGuinness & Williams, 2014). Work might provide a welcome distraction from grief (Gibson et al., 2011) and offer some kind of stability and familiarity (Charles-Edwards, 2009). It gives the individual an opportunity to focus on something besides the loss (Charles-Edwards, 2009; Gibson et al., 2010; Russell, 1998). However, whether returning to work will be a success depends on different factors. The type of work itself might be a challenge in regards to working hours or duties which no longer fit with the new life circumstances of, for example, having sole responsibility for dependent children (Corden, 2016; Holmgren, 2019; McClatchey, 2018).

In a survey of British adults, nearly one-third (32%) stated they had not been treated with compassion by their employers upon their return to work following bereavement (National Council for Palliative Care, 2014). Notably, more than half of all surveyed individuals (56%) would consider leaving their jobs if they did not receive what they considered proper support in relation to losing someone close to them (National Council for Palliative Care, 2014). In this respect, it becomes important to look at what proper bereavement support in the workplace might entail.

In a qualitative study from Northern Ireland, Gibson et al. (2010, 2011) describe the lived experiences of parents who lost a child to suicide. Even though these are particularly painful circumstances (Gibson et al., 2011), the views on what constitutes helpful versus unhelpful approaches to bereaved employees are likely to be applicable to other populations. Some of the things that were highly regarded among these parents were a general acknowledgement of their losses and an increased awareness among colleagues in terms of offers of kindness and practical help (Gibson et al., 2011). In relation to management, paid leave and a possibility of a phased return to work with initial reduced duties were among the most valued, but feeling respected and needed in the workplace were also important (Gibson et al., 2011). Of the less helpful experiences, the parents mentioned insensitive comments and perceived avoidance by colleagues, as well as a general lack of formal support from the management (Gibson et al., 2011).

While most employers acknowledge the fact that bereavement might affect a person’s ability to work and want to do the right thing in relation to bereaved employees (McGuinness, 2007, 2009), it can be difficult to know what that is (McGuinness & Williams, 2014). Individuals react to bereavement in different ways and will need different kinds of support from their workplaces (Charles-Edwards, 2001; McGuinness, 2007; McGuinness & Williams, 2014). Additionally, managers often feel uncomfortable and unprepared for dealing with grieving employees (Charles-Edwards, 2001). Even if the immediate aftermath of a death is handled well, there appears to be a lack of knowledge on the long-term effects of grief and a corresponding lack of support in the workplace over time (McGuinness, 2007). Developing guidelines might be an important first step in ensuring proper support for bereaved employees, as well as for managers dealing with this situation (McGuinness, 2007, 2009; McGuinness & Williams, 2014).

The purpose of the present article was to examine whether the death of a co-parent had a direct impact on the working or student life of the surviving parent. In particular, the focus was on the work–life balance following bereavement, as seen from the perspective of the bereaved. What kind of job-related changes had the individual experienced if any, had the workplace been accommodating, and had it been possible to navigate job responsibilities and the challenges of becoming a lone parent following the death of a partner?

Method

This article is based on data from the second part of a mixed methods study on parentally bereaved families using an exploratory sequential design, i.e. the results from the qualitative part of the study were used to inform the quantitative part (Creswell, 2009). In the first part, widowed fathers and their children were interviewed about their experiences of losing the mother in the family (Holmgren, 2019; Holmgren, 2020a). The narratives of these bereaved families illustrated the various ramifications the death of a parent might have on family life. Changes were thus seen in, for example, financial and social standing, housing conditions, as well as job and school-related areas (Holmgren, 2019; Holmgren, 2020a). These additional consequences are not only stressful in themselves but add to the burden of bereavement and might exacerbate the grieving process (Corden & Hirst, 2013; Corden et al., 2010; Stroebe et al., 2006). To examine whether the results from the qualitative research interviews were applicable to a larger group of widows and widowers with children living at home, an online survey was undertaken.

Thus, a questionnaire was set up in Qualtrics software (2018; Provo, UT). In order to tap into the experiences of the bereaved individuals open-ended questions and comment boxes were used throughout. An emphasis was on the collection of qualitative data with participants providing information based on questions that did not restrict their options for responding (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018, p. 179). The specific questions were informed by the results from the interviews with the aforementioned fathers and children (Holmgren, 2019; Holmgren, 2020a) and previous research on families who had lost a parent (e.g. Aamotsmo & Bugge, 2013; Balk & Corr, 2001; Glazer et al., 2010; Howell, 2013; Worden, 1996). The survey evolved around the topics of social support, grief as a diagnosis (Holmgren, 2020b), bereavement and identity, and work-related changes. The survey data on the latter topic form the basis of this article. In this part of the survey, the study participants were asked the following questions: Has the death of your partner had a direct impact on your work or student life? If yes, how?

Study participants were recruited from a closed, online mutual support network for bereaved spouses with children living at home. A short message with a link to the survey was posted in February 2019. The online support group was based on voluntary contributions and did not involve any kind of counselling. The survey was conducted in Danish, and parts of the results were translated into English by the .

Participants

Eighty-seven individuals answered the questionnaire. The majority were women (93%, n = 81), four were men, and two did not indicate a gender. The participants were between the ages of 25 and 59, with one in four participants (25.3%) under the age of 40, and more than two-thirds (70.1%) between the ages of 40-54. The study participants had a total of 184 children from 0 to 28 years old. There was a big variation in time since the loss, from less than 6 months to 15 years (mean: 4.7 years). The length of the relationship varied equally, from 4–34 years (mean: 15.6 years). While nearly half of the study participants (45%, n=39) had lost their partner to illness lasting more than 6 months, 28% (n=24) had lost to sudden death, and 11% (n=10) to illness lasting less than 6 months. The remaining individuals had lost their partner to accidents (n=6), suicide (n=5), medical failure (n=2), and other (n=1), respectively.

Analysis

The extensive use of comment boxes throughout the questionnaire resulted in a large amount of qualitative data. The analyses of these data were facilitated by the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, NVivo 12 Pro (Bazeley & Jackson, 2013; QSR International Ltd, 2018). The results from the Qualtrics survey were thus exported as 87 individual reports (pdf files) and were subsequently imported into NVivo as individual case files. The analytic steps followed were in accordance with the recommendations of Braun and Clarke (2006) for the use of thematic analysis.

Results

Four out of five study participants (81.6%, n = 71) experienced changes in their working or student conditions as a direct result of losing their partners. The different ways in which this manifested itself will be reported below. The remaining 16 participants (18.4%) did not have similar experiences. Some of the latter explained that it had not been necessary for them to make work-related adjustments of their own, as their workplaces had been very understanding and accommodating following the bereavement. An example of this had been allowing flexible working hours in order for the surviving parent to be able to juggle work and private life (e.g. picking up children from day care on time). Other participants mentioned an overall supportive atmosphere in the workplace. The importance of the latter is illustrated by the following quote:

Sometimes, I do contemplate whether I should find another job, just because I have been in the same workplace for a very long time. If I should find somewhere else, it has to be soon, but then I think, ‘You know what you’ve got but not what you get.’ My employer knows about my personal circumstances and my ‘emotional baggage,’ which provides a sense of security, especially because they have provided a lot of support during the course of [my partner’s] illness and death.

When the question was answered in the affirmative (i.e. the death had a direct impact on work or student life), a range of explanatory options were provided, as can be seen from the answers in Figure 1. It was possible to indicate more than one work-related change.

Figure 1.

The Impact of Death on Work or Student Life (N = 87).

The answers displayed in Figure 1 offer an overall impression of how the death of a co-parent had affected the working life of the surviving parent in a variety of ways. To explore what lies behind the above figures, the data was compared with the answers provided in the comment boxes of the questionnaire. For this purpose, NVivo 12 Pro (QSR International Ltd, 2018) was used to assist the data analyses. The analysis resulted in four overall themes, i.e. 1) Feeling overburdened, 2) Grief as a process, 3) Unaccommodating workplace, and 4) Accommodating workplace. An overview of themes and related subthemes can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1.

Themes and Subthemes.

Feeling overburdened	Grief as a process	Unaccommodating workplace	Accommodating workplace
Grieving, with grieving children	Changes in grief over time	Shiftwork	Temporary leave allowed
Many, often conflicting, demands	Differences in perceived needs for support	Redundancy as a result of the loss	Phased return to work
Sick leave	Work-life balance	Changes to duties without being asked	Flexibility (planning one’s own work)
Financial issues	Additional losses	Transferred without consent	Involved in decision making
Perceived lack of social support	New priorities in life	Ignoring the loss	Acknowledgement of the loss

Feeling Overburdened

When looking at the circumstances of many of the families in the present survey, it appeared that the death of a spouse had either led to a cascade of changes or occurred at the same time as other challenging life events. Generally, the study participants recounted feeling overwhelmed by the death and the ensuing amount of practical and emotional tasks they had had to address on a daily basis. Apart from the initial upheaval and efforts at continuing ‘ordinary’ life for the sake of their children, the surviving parents also had to face, for example, house renovations, sale of the family home, probate and inheritance related matters, as well as financial challenges. In response to the question, what is it like being on your own (following the death of your partner), the following statement was typical of the answers provided:

It’s hard! Suddenly, you are alone with all the practical stuff, such as house, garden, and in my case, a very young child. Apart from that, you are utterly destroyed emotionally, and at the same time you have to take care of your job and another human being who is grieving as well. In my opinion, it has been completely inhuman trying to find the hours and the energy for all of it.

The circumstances had often resulted in sickness absence from work. While several of the study participants indicated that their absences from work were mostly in the beginning (i.e. in the time immediately following the death of their partners), others recounted that their working lives had never been the same. They felt more fragile and had been absent for extended periods, ranging from a couple of months to several years. For some, the leave had started before the actual death, as they had been looking after their ill spouses or taken off time when the spouses had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The reactions to having a dying spouse and dependent children at the same time can be quite severe, as can be seen from the following quote:

I have been off work sick with chronic stress for 4 years. It has ruined our finances and the children’s sense of a normal life despite [of what has happened]. I was ill the first year. Then, I started out on reduced working hours, went further down [in weekly hours], was off sick again, and yet again, and now I am permanently damaged.

The above narrative and other similar ones were characterized by a perceived lack of social support for the children and adults following the death. Quite a few of the surviving parents had felt left to their own devices as bereaved families. In relation to work, several families had to rely on relatives or other kinds of help in order for the surviving parent to be able to manage. This was especially the case when the job involved working shifts or duties away from home, such as conferences and business trips, or when the workplace was in a city different from the hometown. In cases where assistance from relatives had not been offered and hired help was not an option due to financial difficulties following the death, the surviving parent was often left in a kind of catch-22.

For some of the study participants, it had been particularly difficult to rediscover meaning in life following the death of their spouses, and, as a consequence, their enjoyment of work vanished. Several mentioned how they were finding it difficult concentrating on work-related tasks, and others lacked the energy for pursuing new jobs or advancing their careers. Thus, the loss of a spouse might not only have consequences for the working life of the surviving parent in the short time but, in many cases, also in regards to long-term career prospects, to which the following quote testifies:

I am working in a university setting, and, thus, my career is very dependent upon my CV and my list of publications. There is no doubt that I have been less productive during some crucial years of my career and, as a result, have had a major setback and am finding it harder achieving some of the things I would like to do.

While some families had experienced prosperity due to inheritance and/or pensions, many of the study participants described having encountered financial hardship. Quite a few had to sell their family homes or were planning to do so in the near future. Some were living in smaller than desired accommodations, and others had moved to rented apartments. In most situations, it had been challenging for the surviving parents to deal with financial decisions on their own while grieving. In this respect, losing a spouse to sudden death entailed facing unforeseen problems and possible lack of insurance. However, even in cases where the deceased spouse had made provisions for the family prior to his or her death, things did not always go to plan. In one family, the surviving parent had to sell the house in order to cope:

After the death, I have had to make some changes to our situation. My husband had prepared for our financial situation without him, but several things did not prove correct. […]. I could not cope with a financial situation where I was one income short. It made me feel unsafe, and I lacked control over my circumstances.

For financial reasons alone, having a job as a sole breadwinner can be paramount when providing for oneself and one’s children following the death of a co-parent. As could be seen from the sections above, this had not always been possible due to for example sick leave. The narratives of the surviving parents bear witness to a group of bereaved individuals encountering heavy demands on their time and mental resources. The ways in which a given workplace might hinder or foster the work life of a bereaved employee will be illustrated in the sections below. First, however, the experienced changes in grief over time will be addressed.

Grief as a Process

Quite a few of the study participants mentioned grief is not linear but rather a process that changes over time. This has implications for the way the bereaved individuals regard themselves and their ‘progress,’ as well as the experienced needs for help. Generally, these needs were perceived to be more pertinent in the immediate aftermath following the death. The all-importance of the loss, as well as some of the possible temporal changes in grief, are reflected in this comment:

It is a completely new landscape, you suddenly end up in, and the journey continues, I find. At present it is a landscape of anxiety and loneliness that I am trying to negotiate. This might also be the case when you have not been bereaved, but to me everything is linked to that particular condition of life. The loss is a kind of center for everything that has happened since then. Good and bad.

In this way, the death is also likely to have an impact on the individual’s perception of work. Some had started considering how they would like to spend their time (i.e. achieve a better work–life balance), while others were still in a process of deciding what would be the best thing for them to do, workwise. While financial constraints or an overall lack of energy might prevent immediate job-related changes, several were making future plans as a direct result of the bereavement. In the words of one of the study participants, ‘Life has become too short to spend time on the wrong thing’.

It appeared the efforts invested by a given workplace in the safe return of an employee after the death of a close relative might be well worth it, in human terms as well as financial ones. Several of the bereaved individuals in this study, who had not felt met by their employers or colleagues, were more likely to consider quitting their jobs or had done so already. The nonlinearity of grief was also reflected in the fact several of the study participants described how they would be overwhelmed by sudden memories or go through rough patches several years after the loss. The experienced needs for support from the workplace are, thus, likely to change accordingly over time.

Unaccommodating Workplace

In quite a few cases, shift work was mentioned as the main reason for being forced to seek a new job. This entailed working evening or night shifts, 24-hour shifts, or working weekends and holidays. Not being flexible around the clock also resulted in the surviving parents having to seek employment in a completely different field or retrain for a new job. Of the eight individuals, who had been made redundant as a consequence of losing their spouses, two were told to leave due to no longer being able to do shifts. In a third case, the redundancy was justified in the employee supposedly being a future liability for the workplace:

I was told that I was a weak link, when I had a parent with a terminal illness and was alone with two children [after my husband’s death]. They wanted to make sure that I could turn up [for work] every day.

In other cases, the message had been more subtle. The bereaved employee would get less responsibility at work, different duties, less managerial work, or be transferred to a different department without consent, as illustrated by this statement:

My employer moved me to another department and another type of work after my husband’s death. It was a demotion.

One of the study participants had found it necessary to change jobs herself, as she felt trapped in her role as a widow in the workplace, with colleagues focusing too much on her loss. This was not a common experience among the study participants, however, as many had felt a lack of addressing the fact that they had lost their partners more the norm. Colleagues would, thus, not mention this, even when the bereaved individual was “clearly beside herself,” as one participant phrased it.

In general, the surviving parents encountered insufficient knowledge about bereavement and grief among their superiors and colleagues, alike. They asked for more accommodating working conditions, as they were adjusting to the loss of their partners. Juggling the many new responsibilities, in conjunction with handling the reactions of their children and their own grief, required adjustment and took time.

Accommodating Workplace

In situations where the workplace had been perceived as helpful following the loss, the employees expressed gratitude and commitment, as can be seen from this comment:

I have been incredibly lucky to have an employer who saw what I did not see. I was off work sick full time for 4 months and was then offered a plan for returning to work gradually over a period of 8 months.

The crucial point is striking a right balance. While some bereaved employees had been in need of temporary leave or reduced working hours, others requested a mere acknowledgement of the hardship they were going through and an appreciation of their work efforts despite the circumstances. In relation to this, one study participant was grateful for her workplace showing an understanding of her problems with concentration following the death. Another mentioned the warmheartedness of some colleagues whose offers of talks and hugs had made a big difference.

Generally, flexibility at work was highly appreciated by the study participants. This entailed planning one’s own work, working hours, or working day (i.e. being able to work from home in case of a child’s illness or work evenings or weekends when convenient). In addition, some of the appreciated changes actually involved some of the same issues as addressed under the heading of ‘Unaccommodating workplace,’ the difference being that the alterations had taken place in collaboration between the employer and employee. Examples of this were being exempted from managerial responsibilities or a possibility of changing direction within one’s own organization, which in one case had resulted in a renewed motivation for work. The flexibility on behalf of the employer had, in some cases, prevented sick leave, as well as resulted in the employee staying in the job in the long-term.

Whether a grieving employee’s return to work is a success or not appeared, in part, to be reliant on the understanding and approach of the individual employer. In some cases, initial good intentions might not be implemented or sustained, if all levels in an organization are not in agreement, which is illustrated by this statement:

In the beginning, my workplace was very flexible and understanding, but I have met resistance from local managers, who have had difficulties accepting the agreement I had, when things got a bit busy in the department. I would rather have been without that.

The above quote stresses the importance of communication within an organization and the need for a joint approach toward bereaved employees.

Overall, returning to work following the loss of a co-parent had been challenging for the majority of study participants. While grief might be more intense in the beginning, changes occurred over time and so did the experienced needs for help and support. The general atmosphere and attitude of the individual workplace made a huge difference. However, according to the study participants, many colleagues and managers lacked a general knowledge and understanding of bereavement and grief. As a result, the handling of bereavement in the workplace was, in many cases, perceived as inadequate.

Discussion

The purpose of the present article was to examine whether the death of a co-parent had a direct impact on the working or student life of the surviving parent. The results of the survey showed this had indeed been the case for the majority of study participants. Of the 87 individuals who participated in the study, 81.6% (n = 71) answered that they had experienced changes, such as increased sick leave, changes in working hours, redundancy, and a change of jobs. In quite a few instances, the bereaved individual had been off sick for an extended period. This is in contrast to the reported average of 2.5 days of paid leave for bereaved employees in the survey of Canadian organizations mentioned in the introduction section of this article (Wilson et al., 2019) but in line with an interview study of recipients of bereavement benefits in the United Kingdom (Oldfield et al., 2012).

Oldfield et al. (2012) thus found that bereaved spouses in full-time employment had typically taken off a couple of weeks to a few months following the death of their partners. This had often been paid or partially paid leave (Oldfield et al., 2012). In cases, where the bereaved spouse had been working part-time, on a contract, or self-employed, the financial ramifications of the death had often been far worse with periods of no income at all (Oldfield et al., 2012). These reported variations in work-related circumstances, as well as the financial consequences of losing a spouse, is in agreement with the results from this study. Other researchers have similarly reported an increased level of sick leave following bereavement (Hall et al., 2013; McGuinness, 2009), with Hall et al. (2013) stressing the fact that sick leave might be the result in cases where people were unable to afford unpaid bereavement leave.

In view of the above, it is noteworthy that a systematic collating of data on sick leave following bereavement does not seem to be prevalent among organizations (Stephen et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2019). However, in order to be able to gauge the size and nature of the problem, as well as to find possible solutions, this might be recommended. Researchers, thus, call for a governmental initiative in relation to a routine collection of data on bereavement leave (Wilson et al., 2019). The work-related and financial costs of spousal loss for the individual employee and his or her family are often high, as documented by this study and previous research on the job-related consequences of bereavement (Gibson et al., 2011; McGuinness, 2007, 2009; Stephen et al., 2015). Bereavement does not only affect an individual’s ability to work in the immediate aftermath but might also have consequences for the long-term career prospects. If not handled well, bereavement might equally come at a high price for the individual workplace in terms of a lack of employee morale and commitment (Hall et al., 2013; Thompson & Bevan, 2015), low productivity (Gibson et al., 2011), and high staff turnover (Corden, 2016; Thompson & Bevan, 2015).

From the data in this study, it was apparent that job-related factors might prevent the individual from returning to work or for having been made redundant. In several cases, shiftwork or working away from home were no longer an option as a sole parent with dependent children. For others, continued support from family or friends was a prerequisite for being able to manage their jobs. The majority of individuals in this study had experienced heavy demands, emotionally and timewise, taking care of their grieving children, while themselves grieving and negotiating job-related responsibilities. The death had quite often led to other major life changes and a whole array of practical issues that needed to be handled. To make the transition more manageable, it might be necessary to have a phased return to work (Gibson et al., 2011; McGuinness, 2009) and reduced duties (Gibson et al., 2011). However, an important factor when dealing with grief-related matters in the workplace is open and clear communication (Hall et al., 2013; McGuinness, 2007). Bereaved individuals differ (Charles-Edwards, 2001, 2009; McGuinness & Williams, 2014), and an alignment of expectations between the employer and the employee is crucial.

In cases, where the organizations seemed to get the balance right, the grieving employees in this study had felt accommodated upon their return to work, and colleagues and/or managers had provided the necessary support. Unfortunately, this had not been the case for the majority of study participants. In line with the findings from previous studies (Gibson et al., 2011; McGuinness, 2007; Thompson & Bevan, 2015), the bereaved parents addressed a widespread lack of knowledge on bereavement and grief in the workplace, especially in relation to the long-term effects of grief. This lack of understanding had consequences for the well-being of the bereaved individuals, as well as their job satisfaction. In order to counteract situations like these, several researchers recommend a general training of staff and managers in the handling of bereavement in the workplace (Bond & McCracken, 2005; Gibson et al., 2011; Hall et al., 2013; McGuinness & Williams, 2014; Thompson & Bevan, 2015). Additionally, appointing a named employee as a go-to person for support (Charles-Edwards, 2009; Gibson et al., 2011) and developing an organizational bereavement policy are also proposed as important first steps toward managing grief at work (McGuinness, 2007, 2009; McGuinness & Williams, 2014).

In relation to bereavement policies, McGuinness (2007, 2009) highlights the importance of developing policies in collaboration with employees, as well as making sure the policy is known throughout the organization. By applying the latter measure, situations like the one described earlier in this article might be avoided (i.e. a bereaved employee being caught between having made an agreement for return to work with her employer and the disgruntlement of local managers). Researchers also address the need for a bereavement policy to be applied within a generally supportive culture (Thompson & Bevan, 2015). A policy can, thus, not stand alone; it can be a helpful tool for employers and employees alike (McGuinness, 2009), but only when it is a part of ‘a genuinely human response to a major challenge to our well-being’ (Thompson & Bevan, 2015, p. 222). Handling bereavement well is likely to have an overall positive effect on the organization in the long-term (Thompson & Bevan, 2015), internally, in terms of affecting the general morale and commitment of the staff (Charles-Edwards, 2009; Thompson & Bevan, 2015), and externally, in relation to the reputation of the organization and the organizational brand (Barclay & Kang, 2019). When the circumstances surrounding a death are particularly traumatic, support from an external consultant or counsellor might be necessary (Charles-Edwards, 2009; McGuinness, 2009).

Conclusion

For the majority of study participants, the death of their partners had a direct impact on their working or student lives. Four out of five individuals (81.6%) reported this had been the case. The experienced changes were mainly seen in relation to increased sick leave, reduced working hours, redundancy, and a change of jobs. The data bear witness to the specific difficulties encountered by these parents, juggling family and work-related duties following the loss of a co-parent. This was especially prominent in cases where social support was perceived as low or nonexistent. In line with previous research in the area of bereavement in the workplace (McGuinness, 2007), knowledge on bereavement and grief among colleagues and employers were found wanting in many cases. Suggested first steps toward accommodating bereaved employees are training staff and managers (Gibson et al., 2011; Hall et al., 2013; Thompson & Bevan, 2015) and the development of a bereavement policy (McGuinness, 2007, 2009; McGuinness & Williams, 2014). While some working conditions may indeed be nonnegotiable, studies have shown flexibility on behalf of the workplace, as well as bereavement support, can result in increased employee well-being, reduced sickness absence, and greater productivity (Charles-Edwards, 2009; Gibson et al., 2011; Hall et al., 2013), as well as increased staff retention (Corden, 2016; McGuinness, 2007). It is, thus, in the interest of all parties to find the best possible way to handle bereavement in the workplace.

Limitations

This study was based on the experiences of bereaved parents who were all members of an online mutual bereavement support group. While the majority of the study participants had experienced a direct effect of their partners’ deaths on their work or student lives, it is not possible to say whether this would be the case for other groups of bereaved individuals (Stroebe et al., 2003). Additionally, only few men participated in this survey and it would thus be interesting to examine whether similar results might apply to bereaved fathers with dependent children. Future studies might also look more closely at the number of days off sick and the particular reasons for sickness absence. It might be advantageous to include the perspective of the employer and examine possible solutions in a collaboration between the different stakeholders of an organization. It would be equally interesting to investigate the meaning of work to the individual employee (Guest, 2002) prior to losing a loved one and possible changes in attitudes following the loss.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The is deeply indebted to the study participants for choosing to come forward and provide invaluable insights into their lives and experiences.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, ship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The received no financial support for the research, ship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Helle Holmgren

Biography

Helle Holmgren, MSc in psychology, is a PhD fellow at the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University. Her research project focuses on the experiences of parentally bereaved families with children in the home.

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