What would your employer do to remember a death in service?

[NewMatress]

We've very sadly lost a colleague. No funeral arrangements as yet, we only heard about the death this week.

Staff are bombarding boss with demands of what we should do. E.g we should close for the funeral, we should have a balloon release, pay for a commemorative plaque in a public place etc etc.

Boss has said yes, we absolutely will do something, but let's wait and see what the family want. Boss has put a call out to family but isn't going to chase them up at present. We will arrange for people to go to the funeral, if that's what the family want, we will arrange a memorial if wanted, but they might have a charity they'd prefer to support. Absolutely no balloons, bad for wildlife and she loved her animals.

Staff have interpreted this as boss doesn't care and they're not allowed to pay their respects.

I wouldn't have her job for all the tea....

Isn't it usual to have the funeral before these kinds of thing are arranged anyway?

Your boss is doing the right thing.

I've only experienced this once - everybody who wanted to attend the funeral was given time off to do so (office didn't close) and a collection was donated to a charity chosen by the family.

We've had a few deaths in service. One in the middle of the canteen during a busy lunch.

The company sent flowers and representives to the funeral. Close colleagues also went to the funerals (most were very local so it was only a couple of hours). Some families requested to come in and clear their desk of personal possessions. The other conversations and support the company gave to the families were no one else's business.

Anything else was organised by colleagues/team mates. One team organised a magnolia tree and plaque outside his office window which was beautiful and huge by the time I left. Another team planted a tree on site did their colleague, but it unfortunately never took.

If your colleagues want to do something tell them to do it, it will mean more coming from them personally than formally from the company.

We (the team) did a collection and sent flowers to the wife and mum of our colleague. We then sent a fruit, cheese and cracker basket when we knew the wife and mum were together one day. Everything else went to the charity of their choice.

The wider organisation did a memory book and I went to the funeral wake (during covid so only a few people allowed). Wide company also sent flowers to the home of the wife.