Death of Employee

ritaanz

Help! One of our employees just passed away after a long illness. He was with us for over 20 years. He has no family in AZ and no particular religious affiliation. His body will be sent to PA for burial. The only friends he had were his co-workers. Now these coworkers want us to have a non-denominational memorial service on company premises. Am I opening the door for future "headaches"??

Don D

I recommend laying your HR hat aside temporarily so that you don't worry about precedent setting in this case. If that's what the employees want to do out of respect, I think it's great! After all, the memorial service, like a funeral, is ultimately for the benefit of the friends and family (your employees in this case). You'll be a more solid group after having done this.

franfields

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-11-02 AT 09:24AM (CST)[/font][p]A long term employee, an integral part of our "work family", died last year after an illness. Fortunately, his family was in the area so we got a bus to take all employees who wanted to attend to the funeral. We also made sure those who worked directly with him were given the time and space to deal with it, both during his illness and after his death (i.e. a couple needed to leave the office for short periods of time when their emotions got the better of them and we let them do that). No one took advantage and it was well worth it in the long run.

Let them have a service so they can move on.

Rockie

I don't really see anything wrong with this given the circumstances. We had a situation last year where we had a security guard who passed away suddenly over a weekend. He was here Friday and was not on Monday. He was an integral part of our medical practice, both to patients as well as employees. We allowed employees to have a service (non denom) and we also planted a dogwood on our property in his honor with a little plaque with his name on it.

It helped all of us get through the loss.

ritaanz

Hey Folks:
Thanks for your kind words. A memorial service will be held next week. You always come through.