The Importance of Bereavement Leave

Paid leave policies are wonderful benefits for employees. One principle in many employment arrangements is paid bereavement leave. It serves as an important benefit to employees in a time of personal crisis or mourning - a loss of a loved one can be a traumatic event in a person's life and the ability to be with their personal support systems, for support and to provide support, is generally seen as vital to employee morale and mental health. An employee knows he or she can appropriately mourn a loss without suffering a financial loss. The company gets good will back in retention, employee morale, and gets an employee back who can focus while at work.

As with any company policy, though, it must be thoughtfully designed and must meet the needs of employees for it to be valuable.

While the length of leave is generally dependent upon the relationship to the employee, defining relationships within those policies is always a prickly topic. The objective is to be fair among employees, but also sensitive to the needs of your individual employees as well. The view of the organizations customers is important - particularly organizations providing a service or entertainment, where the public perception of the organization is just as important to maintaining business.

Those relationships within the policy's definition of "immediate" family generally include spouse, children, mother, and father, and will generally include the parents of the employee's spouse. Some model policies will include grandparents as well. Many companies will send memorials to the service or otherwise make note of the loss.

How organizations behave toward their employees when those employees need support after the experience of losing a loved one is one of those defining moments that can directly affect how that employment relationship continues from there.

And so we arrive today at the story of Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Troy Williamson. His 72-year old maternal grandmother passed away and he had left the team to help in making arrangements for the funeral and in making arrangements for family members to attend the funeral. He funded about 30 of his relatives trips to South Carolina. He missed the November 4 game against the San Diego Chargers and, as a result, the Vikings announced he would be docked a game check for his absence - a grand total of just over $25,500.

To add an additional feel for what this 24 year old man is going through, his grandmother had played a substantial role in his upbringing and his older brother has been hospitalized since September after an automobile accident. He says she taught him "pretty much everything I know."

The Vikings stand on the matter is one of "business principle," which is to say their bereavement policy does not give an extended leave for grandparents - that relationship is worth 1-day of leave. Their policy is just that, their policy, and as an organization it is their right to have such a policy. However, on it's face it does seem lacking, but it also fails to take into account the reality that grandparents are increasingly taking on parenting roles for absent parents. According to a 1998 Census bureau paper, in 1997 5.5% of American children were being raised in a home maintained by their grandparents - a 76% increase from 1970. And that was 10-years ago.

The reality is business must make business decisions as to what their policies will be, but to be effective in meeting the organizations goal of supporting employees such that when they return to work, they're mentally prepared to return to work, the employer must review its' policies to make sure they will work for the majority of employees. In this case, the Minnesota Vikings may have successfully alienated a potentially valuable employee - widely considered to be one of their best downfield threats this year - possibly compromising on field performance and the likelihood of retaining his services long term.

For the sake of that game check - a not insignificant amount of money, to be sure - the organization has taken a substantial public relations hit as well. Called "crass" and "cheap" by fans and sports writers, the Vikings have made a nightmare for themselves by failing to consider the value of that public support and the value of an emotionally healed employee. In this case, that $25,000 would have bought the team a great deal of public support and they could have easily have chalked it up to advertising their product. The Vikings' failure to review this policy may come back and haunt them.

This failure leads to the conclusion that the Minnesota Vikings do not care well for their employees and do not care about their public perception. A survivable error if your organization has a near monopoly on services, but a grievous and potentially damaging perspective for a competitive marketplace. It's not about the money, to the player or the public - it's about what the organization did or didn't do for someone they would like the public to believe is "family." They would never consider closing a season without a full appraisal of staff and player personnel, yet it may just be a critical flaw that they haven't taken the same consideration to reviewing their employment policies.

RESOURCES:

About.com, sample bereavement policy, URL: http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamples/p/bereavement.htm

"Death takes big toll on Williamson," URL: http://www.startribune.com/vikings/story/1535981.html

Casper, Lynne, and Bryson, Kenneth, US Bureau of the Census, "Co-resident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren: Grandparent Maintained Families," URL: http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0026/twps0026.html

Vikes Dock Williamson's Pay, URL: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3100835