Is this the norm? I don't see why they wouldn't at least announce it an email. It's a bit of a weird topic for a work email, but it's certainly better than doing absolutely nothing.
At one place, a guy who had left the company a few months prior died in a car crash. The guy had a wife and newborn baby. The CEO shared the news and the company made a contribution to a GoFundMe for the wife and baby. I think the company offered grief counseling.
At another, larger company, someone died shortly after I joined, so I never knew them. We were all notified, once again I think a grief counselor came, and the guy’s desk was left as a memorial until we moved offices a few months later.
We really need to start talking more openly about these things. If your coworker dies in a car crash nobody feels like they can't talk about the car crash or even acknowledge the cause of death. Yet with suicide, nobody wants to say it. The result is even more pain mixed with frustration.
https://mentalhealth.org.nz/media/reporting-and-portrayal-of...
I guess to be safe they sort of publish it without many details. Just "Person found dead at such and such".
It later clarifies that the clustering evidence is only focused on teenagers and young adults.
I would assume that those 3 cases are not applicable to the vast majority of full time working environments. If people are using this study as a reason to avoid discussing death by suicide in the workforce, it's because they just don't want to deal with it. If they were motivated by a higher moral purpose, they could ask for advice from a mental health professional or non-profit.
While there may be some cases where it is the right thing to do, silence by default perpetuates the shame and taboo around the subject which can affect the living and prevent them from seeking support.
When the day-to-day doesn't address the simple human aspects of work, it becomes even harder to address the difficult aspects.
Or the person died and they didn’t say it was a suicide.
Because if it’s the 2nd, that seems pretty normal. My right to know doesnt trump the family’s right to privacy.
This just seems bizarre to me to expect a special “all hands” session or something to discuss this.
Provide counseling services? Sure.
Put a “how Jimmy died” meeting on everyone’s calendar? That’s odd.
When a coworker died at work we usually understood the family was the one that needed support, not us. And if the family asked for privacy, then they got it.
And if any of us needed support, we helped each other. We didn’t need HR to pencil in a meeting.
And no, when someone dies their cause of death is not automatically public and most people (including employers) respect that.
It doesn't seem particularly helpful to send out a notifications to people other then those that would be affected by having to take on my workload. And what good would come from them being told I was dead vs just left?
While I have a strong emotional reaction to it, I don't think it's a bad thing, it is a part of life and a reminder for me to savor life.