The Hidden Weight: Understanding Grief in the Workplace

Grief does not stay at home.

It shows up in meetings, in missed deadlines, in irritability, in withdrawal, in overworking, and sometimes in silence. While we often associate grief with the death of a loved one, loss takes many forms — divorce, rejection, health diagnoses, business setbacks, broken relationships, and the loss of dreams.

At this Faith@Work Lunch, we will explore how grief impacts employees, teams, and leadership — and how workplaces can respond with awareness, wisdom, and compassion.

What We’ll Cover

• How grief affects the body and long-term health
• Why grief can surface as fatigue, anxiety, anger, or control
• Behavioral patterns that often have unresolved loss underneath them
• The difference between resilience and suppression
• What healthy grieving looks like
• How leaders can “hold space” without trying to fix everything

Our Speakers

Saundra Lauer, Nurse Practitioner at Well + Co, will share from a clinical perspective on how grief manifests physically and behaviorally in patients and how those patterns often carry into the workplace.

Deb, founder of KT Humble Hearts, will share from lived experience. After losing two children within a short span of time, Deb turned profound sorrow into a ministry dedicated to helping others navigate grief with support, honesty, and hope. She will speak to the deeper emotional and relational aspects of grief and what healing can look like in community.

The event will conclude with a moderated Q&A, bringing together both the clinical and lived perspectives to offer practical insight for leaders, business owners, HR professionals, and employees.

In a culture that prizes productivity and resilience, this conversation creates space for something often hidden but deeply present.

Because when we understand grief, we lead differently.

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