In a team of eight, nobody’s grief stays private for long. A missing voice in stand-up, a delayed release, a quiet chat channel: everyone notices. If you lead a small team, or you are the one grieving, this guide helps you take the next steps one at a time.
Grief at work is how the death of someone close affects a person’s focus, energy and ability to work, and how the workplace responds to it. In a startup, a good response comes down to four things: reach out personally, agree clearly on time off and workload, connect the person with occupational health or counselling, and make sure the rest of the team is not quietly carrying two jobs.
Why does grief hit small teams harder?
Loss is not rare. A Sue Ryder report found that 24 percent of working-age people in the UK had been bereaved in the previous twelve months. Over a few years, almost every team will meet grief, however young the company is.
Most companies are small. In Finland, for example, 96 percent of companies have fewer than ten employees. In a large organisation, work spreads across dozens of people and HR has a ready process. In a startup, one person may own all of sales, product or customer support. When they are away, customers, roadmaps and colleagues feel it straight away.
Grief also affects work when the person is present. In Empathy’s 2025 research, 94 percent of the grieving employees surveyed reported trouble concentrating, 91 percent said they were significantly less productive and 79 percent had considered quitting. These are findings from that study, not estimates for every workforce. Sue Ryder estimates that grief costs the UK economy around £22.9 billion a year. For a small company, the absence of a key person can affect the whole team.
What should you do in the first week?
The first days are remembered for a long time. You do not need perfect words. Being present and handling the practical side clearly is enough.
Reach out personally. Call or send a short message in your own words: “I’m so sorry. Don’t worry about work, we’ll sort it out when you’re ready.” For more ideas, read our guide to handling grief at work.
Ask what the team can be told. Not everyone wants their loss discussed widely. Agree on who tells the others and how.
Name an owner for urgent work. List the three to five things that cannot wait and hand them to a named person. Everything else can wait.
Agree on contact. Ask whether they want to hear about work at all, and how often. For some people work brings rhythm, others need a full break.
Remember the funeral. Give time off to attend and consider sending a card or flowers from the team.
What leave is a grieving employee entitled to?
Rules differ between countries, so check your local law and any collective agreement that applies to you. In Finland, there is no statutory bereavement leave. Chapter 4, section 7 of the Employment Contracts Act (55/2001) gives a right to temporary absence when immediate presence is necessary because of an unforeseeable, compelling family reason arising from illness or an accident. Notify the employer as soon as possible. The Act does not make this paid leave or a general entitlement to time off for every bereavement; check the applicable collective agreement and workplace policy.
Grief on its own is not a medical condition and does not by itself justify sick leave. If it comes with insomnia, a severe stress reaction or depression, a doctor can assess the person’s ability to work and sign them off. Whatever the legal minimum is, a startup can decide to offer a few days of paid bereavement leave. It is one of the cheapest ways to show people they matter.
How do you share the work without burning out the team?
In a small team, nobody’s work disappears into a void. When one person is away, everyone else’s load grows. Left unmanaged, one loss can turn into several people burning out.
Prioritise out loud. Decide together which goals move by a week or a month, so nobody silently tries to do two people’s jobs.
Tell stakeholders only what they need. Customers and investors usually need one line: “We have a personal situation in the team, so replies may be slower for a while.” No details are needed.
Watch the rest of the team. Grief in one person often shows up as exhaustion in another. StartHealth’s guide to recognising burnout (in Finnish) lists the early signs.
Plan the return together. A lighter first few weeks is usually easier than jumping straight back into a full calendar.
How can occupational health support a grieving employee?
Finland is a useful example. Every employer must arrange preventive occupational health care under the Occupational Health Care Act (1383/2001), and Kela reimburses 60 percent of preventive costs and 50 percent of medical care costs, within set limits. Many founders treat it as a legal box to tick. When someone in the team loses a loved one, it becomes one of the most important safety nets you have.
Occupational health can assess ability to work, offer someone to talk to and plan a gradual return with the employee and their manager. Psychologist access depends on the contract, so check what yours includes. For example, StartHealth, which focuses on occupational health for startups, lists remote occupational-health psychologist appointments in Basic subject to a doctor’s assessment. Support adds in-person psychologist appointments subject to remote assessment and referral. Confirm the arrangements and limits in your employer’s agreement.
The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health advises small workplaces to build the relationship with occupational health before problems appear. For grief, that means you already know who to call on the day it happens.
Who helps with the practical tasks after a death?
Alongside grief, a death brings a long list of tasks: funeral arrangements, the estate inventory, notifying authorities and banks, and closing accounts and contracts. They tend to land in the same weeks the person is trying to get back to work. Occupational health usually cannot help with this part.
That is why StartHealth and Solace Care have partnered in Finland. Employees of companies on StartHealth’s Support package get a personal checklist for the tasks after a death, guidance for closing accounts, AI-supported help and a shared task list for the family. Employers elsewhere can read more about loss support as an employee benefit.
What if a team member dies?
This is the hardest thing a small company can face, and nobody is ever fully ready for it. A few things help.
Tell the team together. In person or on a video call, not by email. Leave time for questions and for silence.
Get crisis support. Occupational health can arrange support for the whole team. In Finland, the MIELI Crisis Helpline answers on 09 2525 0111, around the clock.
Contact the family with care. Ask whether they would like colleagues at the memorial. Agree with your accountant how final pay and other amounts are handled.
Point the family to benefits. In Finland, survivors may receive family pensions, and a lump sum from group life insurance if the person was working when they died.
How can you prepare before it happens?
The best time to think about grief is before you need to. A one-page guide that answers these questions is enough:
Who contacts the grieving person, and who tells the team?
How many days of paid bereavement leave do we give, and for whose death?
Who is our contact at occupational health?
Where can an employee get help with the practical tasks after a death?
You cannot stop grief from reaching your team, but you can decide how you respond to it. With a plan in place, the person grieving has room to grieve and everyone else knows how to help. If you would like support with the practical side of a loss, Solace Care can guide your team step by step, at your own pace.
Read more: How to handle grief at work · AI-supported grief care for employers · Solace Care for employers · Suru työpaikalla (in Finnish)
