The loss of a loved one is a deeply unique and challenging experience. While navigating grief, you may also need to manage practicalities, including taking time off work. Bereavement leave, offered by many companies, allows space to grieve and address necessary arrangements.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to request bereavement leave:
Step 1: Notify Your Employer As Soon As Possible
While dealing with a loss, work might be the furthest thing from your mind. However, informing your employer promptly allows them to plan for your absence and enables them to begin a conversation about how they can support you. You can reach out via email, phone call, or even a text message, depending on what feels comfortable to you.
Step 2: Express Your Need for Bereavement Leave
Be clear and concise in your communication. You can say something like, “Due to the recent passing of my [relationship to deceased], I will need to take bereavement leave.”
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Step 3: Be Upfront About Your Availability (if possible)
While specifics might be difficult during this emotional time, communicate any potential dates or timeframe you anticipate needing off. However, it’s okay to acknowledge that your needs may evolve, or to state that you’re unable to set a date at this time. In return, your employer may outline their bereavement leave policy. Read our Employee’s Guide on Bereavement Leave to learn more about any entitlements.
Step 4: Check Your Company’s Bereavement Leave Policy
Familiarise yourself with your company’s bereavement leave policy, often found in the employee handbook or through your HR department. This will clarify details like:
- Leave Duration: The typical length of bereavement leave offered by your company (remember, asides from parental leave with “Jack’s Law,” there’s no legal minimum in the UK).
- Who is Eligible: Who qualifies for bereavement leave under your company’s policy (typically immediate family members, but some may extend to others).
- Paid or Unpaid Leave: Whether the bereavement leave is paid or unpaid.
Step 5: Provide Documentation (if required)
Certain employers may require employees to provide evidence for taking bereavement leave, although such requests must be reasonable. This may include presenting an obituary or a death/funeral notice. Specific instructions regarding the necessity of these documents can typically be located within your employment agreement.
Step 6: Prioritise Your Well-being
Bereavement leave should be a time to focus on your mental and emotional well-being during this challenging period. Don’t hesitate to seek additional support from friends, family, or grief support charities.
Photo by Praveen kumar Mathivanan on Unsplash
🧠 Explore How the ‘Stages of Grief’ Work
The “stages” of grief are one of the most familiar frameworks people turn to when trying to understand loss – yet they’re often interpreted too literally.
Our Stages of Grief guide breaks down where the model came from, what each stage represents, and how it can offer insight without suggesting grief moves in tidy steps.
Explore the page to learn:
📘 A clear explanation of what the Five Stages do – and don’t – mean
🧭 Why grief shifts over time rather than progressing in order
🌊 How emotions can rise and fall in waves
🧩 Other grief models that may resonate more deeply with your experience
