Grief and Work

Abstract

A seemingly rational workplace, in fact, is full of intertwined emotional events, and grief is one of them. However, the significance of underlying emotions that employees carry with them to the workplace and the impact of employees’ perceived notions toward the organization about the way management handles employee problems are not recognized and properly understood. I learned about my own emotional struggles and those of my coworkers while experiencing the loss of a close colleague, Jay, with cancer. This autoethnographical study is my attempt to formulate a narrative of the whole experience to elicit subjective meanings and learning from it.