Honoring a Coworker Who Has Died

Some of the funerals you attend at Dayton, Ohio funeral homes may be for coworkers who have died as a result of a sudden accident or a terminal illness. We all intuitively have a sense of what you can to honor the memories of our friends and family members who have died.

However, it can be harder to know how to honor a coworker who has died. What usually happens is that the company sends a card that is signed by all the employees to the family of the coworker and that’s the end of it.

In a few cases, the company might send flowers to the funeral home or give employees time off to attend the funeral. But in most cases, not much is done to honor the memory of a coworker within American companies.

However, if you worked closely with the person who died and had a friendly relationship with them, you may feel that the company needs to do more to honor your coworker’s memory and to provide support and comfort to their family.

In many companies it is business as usual after an employee’s death. There is no collective mourning or even an acknowledgement that some employees may be grieving over the death of their coworker.

Everyone is expected to perform their jobs as though nothing has changed. This can be a morale buster because it signals to employees that they don’t matter and the company doesn’t care about them or whether they are there or not.

While that may not be the case, companies could – and should – do a better job of remembering their employees who die and doing something to honor their memories.

One idea could be just to set aside a special time shortly after the employee’s death for the company to have a memorial event for them at the company. This event could be something as simple as taking an hour for employees to share their memories of the deceased employee, either by mingling in a room or with a more formal process where people speak one by one.

Companies could honor the memory of an employee who has died in other ways as well.

Perhaps the landscaping crew could plant a tree in memory of the deceased employee in an area of the property where employees congregate on regular breaks and meal breaks. Additionally, the company might want to install a bench near the near with a plaque that has the employee’s name and the years that they worked for the company.

An easy way to honor the memory of an employee who has died is to set up a memory board in a common area. The company could ask all the employees, as well as the deceased employee’s family, to fill up the memory board with photos and other items.

Once the memory board is full, the company could create a permanent photo book that is signed by all the employees that they present to the deceased employee’s family.

Another way that a company could honor the memory of an employee who has died is by creating a small scholarship in the employee’s name and providing annual funding for it.

The company could also honor the memory of a deceased employee by spearheading a donation drive where the proceeds would go to their family. The company could do this in person within the company or they could set it up online.

For information about funeral planning at Dayton, Ohio funeral homes, our compassionate and experienced staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service can help.