INTHEBLACK November 2026 - Magazine - Page 56
WORK SMART
The impact
of workplace
grief
Grief can affect all facets of life,
including performance at work.
In a psychologically safe workplace,
employees have the space to grieve
and the support they need to
move forward.
Words Nicola Heath
SAY “GRIEF” AND PEOPLE USUALLY THINK
of death.
But Dr Lauren Breen, professor of psychology
at Curtin University, says that grief is a response
to any type of loss.
“We often think about grief as something that
occurs due to a close person having died,” she
says. “However, we can grieve impending deaths,
pet deaths and non-death losses too, such as the
loss of a relationship, loss of fertility and loss
of health, to name just a few.”
Breen, who is also a grief and loss expert known
as a thanatologist, says that sometimes a person
may not recognise they are grieving if a loss does
not fit society’s narrow definition of grief.
56 INTHEBLACK November 2026
