menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

The Loss No One at Work Is Talking About

43 0
previous day

Take our Ambition Test

Find a career counselor near me

About 1 in 3 workers are grieving due to workplace changes, yet most people have no language to talk about it.

When grief goes unnamed, it can compound into feelings of abandonment and invisibility.

Expressing grief, rather than pushing past it, can release energy and open people to what's possible next.

Think about the last 12 months at work. Maybe the skills you spent years building feel suddenly uncertain because it now takes a new AI tool just seconds to do the same tasks. Maybe a leader's role was eliminated and you watched them pack up their desk. Maybe the version of work you wanted—purposeful, collaborative, worth the effort—doesn't quite feel the same anymore.

You might have labeled that feeling anxiety. Or burnout. Or just told yourself to push through.

But there's another word for it, and naming it might change everything.

The Weight Has a Name

What many of us are carrying right now is grief.

In our recent research with almost 1,000 U.S. workers, 1 in 3 reported grieving the changes they're experiencing at work. And that finding sits inside a much larger picture. Across nearly every industry, familiar things are disappearing: roles restructured or removed, teams reorganized, ways of working upended. In 2026 alone, major employers—from tech firms to retailers to financial institutions—have announced hundreds of thousands of job cuts, many citing AI as a........

© Psychology Today