I think somebody has told me that someone has died and they haven’t

[gingerbits]

How do I find out if they have?

@gingerbits

I didn’t announce it. See the context.

Comments crossed over, context wasn't clear originally. Ask a manager or HR

Try their social media?

If the supposedly deceased is a colleague simply tell their manager you would like to speak to them, when will they be in?

I may be super paranoid here but my reason for thinking my colleague might have told me maliciously is because she wants to make me unpopular if I start offering condolences about someone who is not dead. It was weird that she told me for starters. She and I are not close and she openly dislikes me. I just thought that it was such a serious subject she wouldn’t joke

Look at their/their family's social media
Ask your manager
Google name + obituary

I would look on social media rather than google or the papers. Look at his or hers family members Facebook pages maybe.

Ask your manager.
If it's a lie, it's really inappropriate.

Ask your line manager. I'm not sure how big your company is but a colleague of mine died about 12 months ago and it was officially announced the next working day by email to the whole organisation and there was a book of condolence, people were very upset etc. It's strange it's not acknowledged if true.

That's simple.. Ask your line manager

How odd.

This happened to me quite a few years ago. Someone I didn’t know that well phoned me and broke the news that my fairly recent ex had died. They were quite specific about how and when.

I phoned three of my ex’s friends, none of them had heard a thing. One said you must be wrong and left it at that, the other two did some digging and assured me he was still alive.

I never got to the bottom of where the rumour started or why. To be honest I think it was a malicious act against me ie intended to unsettle or upset me.

I think there would be an announcement in most workplaces. It's an appalling thing to lie about.

This happened in my family.

An aunt who does suffer from delusions but who doesn’t have form for making this stuff up announced that another family member was dead. Said family member was in a care home so not beyond the realms of possibility. So imagine my mum’s surprise when she met the brother of this family member and he said he’d just been to visit her in the care home.

When she did actually die about two years later, my mum rang the care home to check when she was told. And since then whenever this family member tells her someone has died she verifies it first.

You are saying you 'think' they told you. Did they say X is dead/died or something ambiguous like X is no longer with us?

Sorry the “think” part in the title was actually related to the “they haven’t” as in “I think they haven’t actually (died)”

What do you mean by you 'think' they told you. What did they say?

Cross post

I could believe this would be maliciously against me. She wants me to say inappropriate things to people to affect my popularity, make me seem to be a liar / unstable / rumour spreader

Pretty high risk way to go about it

Any chance you've misinterpreted something?

If you're sure it's not a mix up I would just ask my manager. "Jane told me John has died, is it true?'

I think as pp have suggested the best course of action will be to speak to your line manager openly.
It’s rather strange to have a colleague die and for there not to be some sort of formal announcement with suggestions of bereavement counselling services and attending the funereal etc.

If you think someone's stitching you up, why are you going along with the stitch up?

She gave me a very graphic description of how he died.

I.e. : you think they want you to make a fool of yourself by announcing the death and yet you've announced it twice.

@Notredamn i didn’t think somebody would stitch me up about something as serious as a death. But now after speaking to two colleagues who are also friends of the supposedly deceased I am starting to realise that may be the case and I’m trying to work out a way to get to the bottom of it

@Notredamn it is not my natural reaction if somebody tells me someone has died, to think it is a set up. It’s only after getting two shocked looks when offering my condolences (in the context of a work conversation) that it slowly occurred to me that it might not be true