Navigating Grief in the Lab: Supporting Staff Through Loss

Laboratory leaders are accustomed to solving operational problems like staffing shortages and quality control challenges. However, since lab environments are high-pressure and performance-driven, emotional challenges like grief often go unrecognized or unnoticed. When left unaddressed, it can significantly impact morale, retention, productivity, and team cohesion.  

Dana Powell Baker, EdD, MBA, MS, CPH, MLS(ASCP)^CM, Senior Manager of Academic Partnerships at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, delivered a session on this topic at the ASCP KnowledgeLab in March 2026.  

Dr. Baker shares her considerations for laboratory leaders on how to manage and address employee grief in the laboratory.  

Make grief a visible part of workplace well-being  

Grief is a near-universal experience, yet dealing with it from a staff perspective in the laboratory can be confusing.   

When Dr. Baker was grieving her own father’s decline and passing, she sought information about bereavement in the workplace with general questions such as, “What does grief look like in the workplace? What is the bereavement process?”  

She realized that, as a profession, “People don’t talk about grief and what that looks like in workplace policies.”  

Her suggestion is for laboratory managers to treat grief as part of a formal wellbeing strategy, recognizing that it can affect both people and performance. 

At the bare minimum, however, laboratory leaders should know what the policies are and what agency or influence they have to support their staff.  

Leaders should help employees navigate HR  

Once the leader understands the institutional bereavement policy and the resources available to grieving employees, they should take responsibility for navigating HR rather than placing the burden on grieving employees.  

Managers can be the best resource by understanding the policies in advance of employees needing them, Dr. Baker says.  

Build structured check-ins and opportunities for communication   

Most laboratory leadership training focuses on hiring, retention, and performance, but it doesn’t often talk about how to navigate the emotional side of staff who are grieving, Dr. Baker says.  

Without preparation, leaders are forced to improvise. “We can’t assume that everyone has that skill of being an empathetic or compassionate leader,” she says.  

In laboratory settings, grief often goes unnoticed because employees continue performing or masking their emotions. “I’m one of those people—if I’m grieving, I’m pouring myself into my work,” Dr. Baker says.  

Grief may not look the same in every employee, and it may surface at surprising times. “Grief is not linear. It doesn’t have an expiration,” she says.  

Since not every grieving person may be forthcoming about their experience or want to talk about it, Dr. Baker says it's incumbent on leaders to create opportunities and a brave environment for employees to ask for support. 

“Creating that space is really important for engagement or conversation to happen. It doesn’t put the onus on that employee,” Dr. Baker says.  

At the same time, leaders should avoid prying into details. “If the employee wants to disclose the details of the loss, leave that up to them,” she advises. “You want to respect that this is their grief and their process.” 

At the end of the day, sometimes a simple acknowledgment can help. “It’s okay to not know exactly what to say… but just saying, ‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ can go a long way.”  

Grief management supports retention, performance, and team function  

When grief is mishandled or not addressed, the impact extends beyond the individual.  

“You risk lack of motivation, lack of engagement… it impacts teamwork and collaboration,” Dr. Baker says. “It can affect critical thinking, decision-making, even innovation.”  

There are also measurable retention risks if grief isn’t handled right. She referenced research in which up to 40 to 50 percent of employees considered leaving their workplace due to poor grief support.  

Other members of the team may also note how one person’s grief is handled. “If staff see someone wasn’t supported, they’re watching that,” Dr. Baker says. Sometimes employees navigating personal loss do not report it to their employer.   

Act as communicator, companion, or coordinator  

Dr. Baker stresses that leaders don’t need to have psychological training; they just need to step up in some key ways.  

“Your role is not to be a counselor or psychologist,” she says. “But the expectation is that you are the communicator, the companion, and the coordinator.” She drew on the work of Nathan D. Iverson in his article, “Leading Through Loss at Work: Why leaders need more than good intentions when grief enters the workplace” at Psychology Today to outline these roles: