It's hard being human

Everyone was stunned when they heard Samuel died by suicide. Those who worked in the office either sat at their desks staring into space or gathered in small groups in various spaces around the office. Hushed voices could be heard everywhere. “I had no idea.” “Did you know?” “Do you think he seemed a little different lately?” Every statement trailed off as people got lost in the enormity of the event, many second-guessing their recent interactions with Samuel.

Installers learned about Samuel’s passing as they assembled to begin the workday. Foremen were notified via phone calls before they left for work and had the unenviable task of informing their crews about Samuel’s death. Most foremen felt ill-equipped to deliver the news, so they stumbled their way through it and then sent everyone off to work as quickly as possible. Everyone started the workday in a suffocating fog of emotion and swirling thoughts.

Breaking the news

When a co-worker dies, there can be overwhelming feelings of grief, and reactions may be surprising. Some employees who did not know the deceased well may be overcome while others who were close to the employee may appear to be unaffected. Very few foremen are equipped to deliver news of a co-worker’s death regardless of cause and assigning them to communicate difficult news shouldn’t happen without preparing them first.

Delivering news of an employee’s death by suicide is particularly challenging. It can feel vulnerable, and there may be fear of causing more harm than good or saying the wrong thing. The best approach initially is to keep messaging concise and convey support.

Some tips include:

• Planning and rehearsing talking points
• Calling a team meeting to bring employees together in a structured session
• Allocating time for an open, honest approach
• Avoiding speculation and rumors
• Observing confidentiality requests from the employee’s family or authorities
• Conveying compassion and competence

If messaging of a co-worker’s death will be delivered in different locations, you should issue talking points to ensure consistency and provide additional support to those entrusted—and burdened—with the responsibility of delivering the news.

Other than foremen, the burden often falls to whomever in the office holds the human resources title. But that person often only maintains employee files and is not trained in employee development or engagement. Staff who are unprepared to have such conversations, though well-intentioned, may end up making hollow efforts.

How to prepare

Although we all want to believe suicide would never happen in our organizations, it is important to be prepared for the possibility. Some practical steps are:

• Drafting a response plan and bereavement policy so no one needs to figure out what to do while also being consumed by grief and uncertainty.
• Identifying those in your organization best equipped to handle and deliver information. Also, identify a second person to support the first and handle the responsibility if he or she is not available when needed. In this scenario, it would be ideal for foremen to be trained in this role in addition to company management training.
• Having resources available for support and services.

Aside from procedures and policies, it also is important to offer everybody, especially your point people, training that addresses mental health and suicide prevention.

Discussions about suicide should include prevention, intervention and post-trauma outreach.

Prevention

Top leaders create cultures that encourage psychological safety, evidenced when employees feel safe to take interpersonal risks, speak up, disagree openly, or discuss concerns without fear of negative repercussions or receiving sugarcoated bad news.

Being able to speak freely about feelings or concerns will help alleviate workplace stress, which is believed to be the leading factor in suicides when employees have little or no control over intense job demands. Excessive workloads and interpersonal issues can become “a final straw” on top of pre-existing stressors and mental health issues such as anxiety, depression or drug use.

Everyone moves along the mental health spectrum over time though male employees are 15 times more likely than females to die by suicide because of workplace issues.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, less than 3% of the U.S. population will struggle with severe disorders such as schizophrenia or disorders such as obsessive compulsive, borderline, bipolar or post-traumatic stress; however, more than 8% will have a major depressive episode in a given year and almost 20% struggle with anxiety disorders.

Two things, specifically, would make a dramatic difference: creating a safe culture and training.

Consider the psychological safety of your company culture from a work perspective. Can people make suggestions without ridicule? Do new employees experience hazing? Do people know those who work for them well enough to discern when something seems off? Do managers react to employee concerns with curiosity or hostility?

Intervention

Although training is important, it is useless if leaders are afraid to use and elicit the vulnerability required to have difficult conversations.

The roofing industry trains workers about physical safety concerns, but it is time to add mental health to the list. If 8-20% of employees were falling prey to any physical hazard, companies would do what they could to mitigate it right away.

The first response to hazards on roofing jobs is to eliminate them. When a hazard cannot be eliminated, the next response is to use mitigation techniques such as personal fall-arrest systems or personal protective equiment. Mental health safety is challenging because neither of those strategies are options, but others exist.

An EAP, or employee assistance program, provides assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, management consultation and coaching services. Companies can contract with an EAP provider that offers services 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. EAPs are completely confidential, and some services also may be available to employees’ families.

Toolbox talks also can be a comfortable method to discuss a challenging topic. To be effective, those who deliver them need to be willing to have wide-ranging discussions with people. Ideally, a company would have several people who feel comfortable and prepared to have these conversations.

Post-trauma outreach

Following a suicide, one thing to absolutely avoid is returning to “business as usual” too soon. Obviously, the death of an employee most likely will force you to hire someone else. And on top of that, if the employee interfaced with customers, they, too, will have to be notified and projects may be delayed. But consider focusing on employees during this time. Communicating that work is more important than people will show employees the culture of the workplace is not one in which honest conversations take place.

Best practices include early direction and clear communication from trusted leaders. A workplace is a community, and leaders set the tone. If information about the death of an employee is poorly communicated, speculation and rumors may take over. Additionally, employees will feel alone in their responses and you will miss an opportunity to build trust.

The effects of knowing someone who died by suicide may include trauma, depression, complicated grief and substance misuse. These can last for weeks, months or years.

Initially, it can be helpful to invite a mental health professional or grief counselor to speak to your whole team. It can be valuable to hear reactions are unpredictable and complex, and there is no one right way to feel or respond.

As time passes, encourage supervisors to bring up the incident from time to time, normalizing ongoing feelings about the incident and the person who passed away. Engaging in conversation may encourage employees to tap into the company’s EAP or seek individual therapy.

On or near the anniversary of the death, acknowledge the loss. Some people will not be thinking much about it at that time, but others, for whom it still feels heavy, may be relieved to have it acknowledged.

Keeping open dialogue will also help to reduce some of the shame and fear people experience if and when they think about suicide. Ideally, this will encourage people to engage in conversation and seek help when they need it.

A fight worth fighting

Addressing mental health in the roofing industry has its hurdles; however, the reality of mental health challenges is significant. Every person in the roofing industry wants people to go home safely to their families. To do so, we need to broaden our mindset about what can affect employee safety and be willing to address mental health issues.

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AMY STASKA is vice president of NRCA University.