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Last week, I shared part of the story of Melissa Saleh, a Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneur who experienced life-changing grief during her fertility journey. It affected her personally and professionally, highlighting a question many of us have likely wondered: Why are we expected to be resilient at work after a loss? Today, I’m sharing why Ms. Saleh believes that grief can help us show up more boldly in life and at work, and how companies are providing better support for grieving workers.
“That loss was so horrific and so deep that, frankly, it opened up all of the past grief that I had suppressed from other things, and it allowed me to grieve everything,” says Ms. Saleh, who has suffered multiple miscarriages and lost a child on the day they were supposed to be born. “There’s such a freedom that comes in that, and there’s also such a release of fear.
” She says that the release of fear can help people come out of grief as stronger versions of themselves, because they know that they can handle the future challenges that will come their way. This can look like having more clarity and focus on your professional goals or even deciding to leave your corporate job to pursue something else. You may come back with stronger communication skills or feel more confident in your worth because you know you are strong and capable.
It might be easier to let go of the inhibitions that were holding you back professionally. “It can give you this inner power that you just didn’t know you had,” she says. Ms.
Saleh says grief also teaches you what truly makes you happy – which is a question that many people struggle to answer. “It is so hard and brutal, so you kind of learn what makes you happy, because it’s such a stark contrast to the horror of grief,” she says. She says it’s powerful for people to understand what brings them joy, whether it be an activity, working on a skill, having a passion project or even falling back in love with your current job, so they can make intentional choices to put their energy there.
Supporting grieving workers One thing Ms. Saleh says she noticed the most during her experiences with grief was how companies were not set up to support their workers beyond letting them take a few days off. “The vast majority of humans will experience grief and loss in this lifetime.
What does the work force do about that? Honestly, traditionally, nothing,” she says. For example, in Alberta, employees are eligible for bereavement leave only if they have been employed for more than 90 days with the same company. Workers are entitled to three days of bereavement leave per calendar year, not per incident of bereavement.
Ms. Saleh says she is seeing positive shifts, though, as employers take steps toward providing more support to workers, helping companies and their employees come out stronger. For example one platform called Empathy , which launched in 2021 during the peak of the pandemic, is being leveraged by companies to help workers with different aspects of the bereavement process including connecting them to counselling, using AI to help write obituaries and helping settle complex financial affairs.
There are also nonprofits, like Pallium Canada, that offer workshops such as the Compassionate Workplace Campaign , which has the goal to create a more compassionate work environment for all Canadians, including working caregivers and those who are grieving. When you are supported and able to overcome your grief, “you are going to become a whole new version of yourself, and you are going to become a whole new version of who you are at work,” Ms. Saleh says.
5.5 per cent That’s the portion of venture capital dollars that go toward the agriculture sector worldwide. Here, Globe reporter Kate Helmore takes a look at how one female-led fund has raised $51-million to help transform Canadian agriculture through robotics, automation and biotech.
Read more It’s not always easy to “switch off” at the end of the work day, whether you’re bringing work stress with you to dinner with your family or your mind is racing while you’re trying to fall asleep. The article from Harvard Business Review provides a few tips to help you disengage after work hours including wrapping up one small task before you leave, jotting down a to-do list for the next day and tidying up your workspace. Over all, creating an end-of-work ritual will help you transition out of work mode.
Read more “Sales tax is not considered a junk fee, but it’s a constant irritant when making even small purchases. Might we be better off with tax folded into retail prices? When the GST was introduced in 1991, there was a belief that the tax had to be fully transparent to people and thus broken out separately. But other countries have included similar sales taxes in pricing, so that consumers know exactly what they’re paying,” writes Globe personal finance columnist Rob Carrick in this piece about the sales tax holiday.
While Mr. Carrick isn’t a fan of the tax holiday as economic policy, he says it’s a great model or clarity. Read more Dopamine detoxes, or periods of time without pleasurable activities such as scrolling social media or indulging in junk food, are meant to break cycles of craving and make space for healthier habits.
Here’s the psychology behind this trend and insight into if these detoxes really work. Read more.
