Working Through Grieving

After funerals at funeral homes in Beltsville, MD, you will have to, usually sooner rather than later, resume the routine activities of life. When you’re grieving, even the most mundane of these activities, like taking the trash to the curb each week or going grocery shopping, may seem monumentally difficult.

Going back to work is perhaps one of the toughest challenges you will face after the death of someone you love. There are many reasons for this.

One reason is that, in our modern society, there is no time to grieve or mourn. Most companies give a short bereavement time (three workdays is common; some are paid and some are unpaid) before the bereaved return to work.

You will experience a lot of mixed emotions and feelings when you return to work as you juxtapose the major life event you’ve experienced against business as usual on the job. It can seem quite surreal, and you may feel like you’re a foreigner in a place where you know nothing about what is going on in this new location where you find yourself.

These feelings and thoughts can seriously disrupt your ability to function at work, at least initially. Additionally, there is always the likely possibility that you will not get the empathy and support of your coworkers so that you can ease back into work while you’re grieving. You also are very apt to have people make insensitive or hurtful comments (perhaps not intentional) that will compound your feelings of grief.

Grief is a process, not an event. It may take weeks, months, or even years to work through when you lose someone you love. The grieving process has a tremendous impact on you physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is exhausting and you will, no doubt, find yourself feeling very tired all the time and easily overwhelmed by even the smallest things.

Grief disrupts your body’s physiology. Two common physiological problems that emerge during the grieving process are disrupted sleep patterns and mental fogginess. Both of these can take a toll on your ability to work and to be productive at work.

No matter, however, how much grief is internally taking a toll on you, there are a few guidelines that can help you work through grieving.

One guideline is to always take the high road professionally. People do insensitive things and they will say insensitive things. Whether these actions or words are intentional or not, it’s important for you to be professional regardless. Don’t respond emotionally and do your best not to react emotionally.

Another guideline is to get grief counseling. The funeral home has many community resources for informal and formal grief counseling, so talk with the funeral director about access to these resources. If a particular type of grief counseling doesn’t fit your style and temperament, then try something else. Not everyone, for example, is comfortable in group settings or in one-on-one counseling. But, it’s important to keep looking until you find a method that works best for you.

Third, if your employer has a work-from-home option either full-time or a few days a week, consider taking advantage of it until you are emotionally and mentally far enough down the road in the grieving process to be able to competently handle being back in an office environment.

If you’d like to know more about grief resources at funeral homes in Beltsville, MD, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at Donald V. Borgwardt Funeral Home, P.A.