Finding The Right Sympathy Gift For A Coworker

It’s a normal part of working life for a coworker to experience a loss. They may lose a loved one, a relationship, experience infertility issues, suffer a miscarriage or health crisis. Grief in the workplace is inevitable. 

You want to be helpful and supportive of a grieving coworker with specific regards to a business/work environment. The grief experience is stressful and difficult, and your colleague may go through extensive life changes. Managing work on top of navigating life after a loss can make everyday work situations even more challenging.

Handling grief ineffectively can result in large risks for a business. Workers experience grief in many forms, as we’ve seen more apparently than ever with Covid-19. 

Let’s focus on some of the costs of grief in the workplace and how you can contribute to or build a healthy grief culture. I’ll share ideas for the best sympathy gifts for a grieving coworker, as well as other ways to support an employee who has experienced a loss or is undergoing a major transition. 

Cost Of Grief In The Workplace

In the workplace, there are emotional impacts of grief and also financial ones. After returning from bereavement leave, grieving workers often struggle with concentration. The stress of grief can even cause physical ailments that could force an employee to be absent from work more. 

From productivity to absenteeism, financial costs to grief in the workplace are difficult to quantify. For some employees, returning to work can be a positive experience, providing some normalcy or distraction from their grief. For others, returning to work isn’t as positive. Grief can also impact memory and the ability to focus. This can make it difficult for employees to complete even routine tasks. 

Before assuming that an employee is “unmotivated,” try to take their perspective and assess the life transitions that have occurred because of their loss. They may have new routines, increased responsibilities at home, or getting less sleep because of these and other concerns. 

Employees living with grief deal with higher levels of daily stress. A grieving employee may turn to substance use as a tool to handle these emotions. They may be prone to making decisions too quickly, too slowly, or not at all. If their role involves physical labor or tasks, grief symptoms can cause distraction and increase the risk of injury to both them and their colleagues. 

This can become a significant cost to employers. Employers who want to contain the cost of grief should look to build and improve their response to a grieving employee. 

Building A Healthy Grief Culture

You can begin building a healthy grief culture in the workplace with some simple steps. 

First, create a supportive environment for talking about grief. Often, the topic of grief makes us uncomfortable. From a human resource perspective, it can be hard to walk the line between business and personal life in general. That becomes more challenging when an employee’s personal life clearly has implications for their job. It is helpful for employees to know that leaders in the company address their own challenges and acknowledge the loss being felt by employees. Be open and share experiences that you have had that may make a grieving individual feel more understood.

It is important to know that grief can come in many forms. Grief is most often associated with the death of someone close, but grief can also occur with many other types of loss. A person can grieve the loss of a friendship, community, or as we’ve seen with the pandemic at hand, the loss of family gatherings, in-person traditions and events, and routine face-to-face social connection. 

Grief also results from a hard or significant mental or physical diagnosis, either of oneself or a close relative or friend, and from tragedy that does not involve death, such as infidelity. Simply the process of major life transition can induce grief—even if the change is overall positive in their eyes.

Check in with the person who is grieving and be ready to listen. They may share the same stories over and over again. While this repetition can be challenging to listen to, it is a natural part of the grief process, and a coworker's mental health can improve through time spent talking about it in a compassionate, open space. 

A quick way to get an idea of how your organization can help employees feel heard and supported during times of grief is by surveying staff. A few questions can give you a lot of information about the needs and feelings within the organization. Answers to questions can be used to guide and build a culture of compassion and help to reduce the stigma in talking about and managing grief in the workplace.

Creating a healthy grief culture in the workplace will take time. By taking steps and making this process a priority, you will  build a strong work environment where employees feel valued and supported. Many plans for addressing employee grief involve sending that employee a sympathy gift. 

Beyond whatever sympathy gifts you get for a coworker, it is most helpful for an organization to develop a plan and build available resources before loss occurs. As part of creating a healthy overall grief culture, create a list of options that fit the overall financial budget. 

Having access to a resource of ideas and options will save time and ensure that the right sympathy gifts for employees are sent in a timely manner.

Gift Ideas - Finding The Right Sympathy Gifts For A Coworker

The right sympathy gift for a coworker or employee will meet the needs of the person receiving it. A sympathy care package or gift basket lends itself to smaller items that are more manageable to the recipient. Here are some ideas for creating the best sympathy gift basket for a coworker.

Stress relief and spa-like items | The goal of giving a gift is to show support during a difficult time. Few things show true understanding of the impact of grief than items that soothe, such as candles, body lotions, or items that refresh. Items made using high-quality ingredients that can be used to pamper and soothe make some of the best sympathy gifts for a coworker. 

Food | One of the most common choices to include in any gift basket or sympathy care package is food. Focus on foods that either provide comfort or are helpful for snacking and maintain energy without causing a sugar crash that can trigger emotional disturbance or physical distress. An employee who has recently suffered from a loss may experience a decrease in appetite, making easy-to-grab snack foods a great choice for a sympathy gift basket. You can include chocolates, charcuterie boards, jam, gourmet treats, fruits, or individually-packaged baked goods (comforting foods like molasses cookies, oatmeal and raisin cookies, or brownies). Small snacks can include dried fruits, nuts, pretzels, or different flavors of popcorn. Be aware and considerate of any dietary or cultural considerations when deciding to send foods. 

Gifts for the home |  Small gifts that can be picked up for instant comfort around the home include a weighted pillow, soft shawl or blanket, or a small figurine. These gifts are typically not consumable and can be used over time as grief ebbs and flows for your coworker or employee.  

Memorial or keepsake gifts | Another sympathy gift for a coworker that can be enjoyed long after the initial impact of grief is a token or small, beautiful item. Candle holders, suncatchers, wind chimes, and many other keepsake items can be given plain, or can be engraved with a special quote or even the name of the lost loved one. Keep in mind the aesthetic tastes of your colleague, being mindful of the type of décor they use (if you know) or the possibility that they won’t want to display something, for any number of personal reasons.

Gift cards |  While gift cards are an easy and oft-chosen item, the reality is that many gift cards never get used after they are given. If you choose to include a gift card, make sure that it is for something the employee already uses or definitely will use while they are still grieving. If they historically love a specific hobby or outing, they might not find joy in it immediately after a significant loss. If you decide to include a gift card, get something more practical for grief. You want your gift to be appreciated and not become an additional task that must be managed.

Include gifts for affected children | If there are children in the grieving family, consider including small items for them. This shows understanding and acknowledgement of how grief can impact the entire family. A small stuffed animal, blanket, coloring book, or simple toy can be included to let them know that their grief is also recognized. 

Find more coworker sympathy gift inspiration in these care packages.

Other Ways To Support A Grieving Coworker

Gifts are just one way to show an employee or coworker that they are valued and appreciated. There are several things you can do to show support. 

Set up one-on-one check-ins. | This gives a grieving colleague a chance to talk about their challenges and struggles in living with grief. You do not need to have answers or suggestions ready, just be willing to actively listen and show them that you are open to these types of conversations. 

As you listen, pay attention to their preferences and needs. | This can be a great opportunity to support a coworker during what may be a long period of grief. As you become aware of common grieving employee preferences and needs, this information can be shared with a mental health team to use in fostering a healthy grief culture within the organization. 

Understand the impact and cost of grief in the workplace and strive to build a more compassionate response to grief when it occurs for an employee. There are many ideas for creating the right sympathy gift for a coworker or employee, but know that there are other things that you can do which do not have a financial impact on the business. 

Working to create a healthy grief culture takes time and effort, but the results of that work will be realized by employees who feel supported and continue to feel valued.