Everyone will experience grief at some stage in their life. It is a natural process but should not be ignored both by the person themselves and the organization where they work because this process can impact their life, if seen from the perspective of physical, mental, and social health.
Grief has a development that must be monitored, above all, by the company to know how it can help and when it should act. This is a job for the company’s HR department and, perhaps, specialized professionals.
Grief is one of the factors that can increase physical and mental exhaustion. This is a condition observed in a large part of the population and can be avoided with simple measures, see below:
What does it mean to ‘be in mourning’?
Grief is a natural emotional process, a healthy response to dealing with the loss of a loved one. Through grief, a person is able to recognize and adapt to the resulting absence and emptiness.
Grief does not depend on the intensity of the pain felt, but the ability to deal with the loss is what translates into greater or lesser suffering. Grief can also be experienced due to other types of losses, such as in relation to emotional health and business, for example.
The state of mourning causes a person to withdraw and withdraw, tending towards silence and expressions of sadness. However, when uncontrolled, mourning can deepen the feeling of loss and lead the person to depressive processes.
Each person experiences grief in their own way, whether they are able to overcome the experience or not, and succumb to it. However, although painful, grief is a transitional experience, preparatory to the continuation of life after the absence of the other.
Physical Symptoms of Grief
Grief can cause various physical discomforts.
As with other situations of mental health problems, the body can react in different ways: headaches, nausea, dry mouth, gastric problems and even palpitations.
Emotional Symptoms of Grief
Similarly, as in the case of physical consequences for the individual, grief presents different symptoms for each person.
This state causes other negative feelings, such as guilt, anxiety , anger and discouragement. In more severe cases, the person may develop depression.
What is the mourning period?
Because it is a very personal process, there is no way to say how long mourning will last. This is because the more difficult it is for the person to deal with the loss suffered, the longer the mourning period will be.
On average, it can be considered that the duration of grief ranges from one month to one year, which does not prevent the existence of grief that lasts for years. As you can see, the way people deal with and absorb the suffering of loss varies greatly between different people.
In any case, there is no time limit for grieving, nor is there a correct way to do so. However, it is important to validate both the pain and the personal process of moving on from it, since grieving is a healthy part of the process of loss.
The 5 stages of grief
When observing grief, it has been noticed that it develops as a process, in stages. There is no uniformity and different people may experience different processes. However, in general, 5 stages of grief can be considered. Follow along.
Denial
Denial is often the first reaction, even if unconscious, in order to protect oneself from the inconvenient and painful truth. The denial stage can last for a few moments or take weeks until reality is accepted.
Anger
Anger is often a way to mask emotions such as sadness and feelings of abandonment. It often involves self-destructive behavior, but anger is actually directed at the event of loss: a loved one who has passed away or a romance that has ended.
Bargain
The bargaining phase manifests itself in the form of speculative negotiations between the person and themselves or with a deity they believe in. In this way, the person looks for impossible past alternatives, such as “what if I had done such and such”.
Depression
Grief can lead to great suffering, which can last for a long time, as an attachment to the pain of the loss, which feeds back into depressive processes. Although the situation can evolve into deep depression when out of control , the process itself is part of grief.
Acceptance
Acceptance is the final phase of the grieving process, when there seems to be an awareness of the new reality that is highlighted by the absence of the loved one. In this sense, acceptance can be seen as a way of peacefully living with the loss that has occurred, regardless of the sometimes very strong incidence of longing.
How to deal with the pain of grief?
The first step is to understand that we must experience all of our feelings. Therefore, do not ignore grief; it is necessary to experience this process.
Everyone deals with emotions in their own way. That’s why you should take a moment to understand what you’re feeling and figure out how you’ll deal with grief.
Depending on the time it takes for you to accept the changes that life has brought, don’t blame yourself for moving on after the loss of an important person.
Talk to your friends and family, and seek help if you feel it is necessary.
How can the company help deal with the loss?
An important observation is that, although approached as a process, especially to understand its phases, grief does not develop in a linear way. Furthermore, each person incorporates their own characteristics, values, needs and everything that makes them an individual.
Therefore, there is no straightforward recipe for what to do. However, it is essential to understand that all efforts, especially from the company’s HR department, must be focused on welcoming the grieving employee. This is the greatest support that can be given, such as promoting quality of life for employees.
Keep in mind that each person’s pain and stress at work cannot be shared. However, the person who is suffering can be welcomed and this is where the organization where the person works plays a big role.
In this sense, consider actions that are within the company’s possibilities in initiatives such as, for example:
- make vacations more flexible to bring them forward;
- promote the value of life through initiatives with employees;
- provide psychologists to the employee;
- work with employees in general to demystify death.
When does grief require professional help?
Initially, professionals need to be available to meet the demands of grieving employees. In turn, when there is difficulty in completing the grieving process or when depressive processes develop that cannot be resolved, professional support is needed.
In fact, professional psychological support can be used whenever there is a stagnation in the grieving process, which becomes chronic. In these cases, the risk of escalating into deeper depression is always real.
Therefore, there are no rules for intervention, but it is always important to support the person who is going through grief. Professional initiative should be taken when there is no longer any reaction or if it is perceived that there is stagnation in the process.
Grief is an experience that can be very significant and, when it lasts too long, may require professional support. Essentially, all the company’s help should be based on welcoming the grieving employee.