Covering a Colleague's Funeral
You know how it is. You watch local newscasters on TV every day. Some come and go, others work their entire careers in one market.Bob Barry, Jr. - like his father before him for 40 years - was the sports director and main sports anchor at KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City. He died in a traffic accident on June 20.
The following day - independent of each other - every news operation in town called the station, all with the same offer: they would send their own staff to KFOR to cover their broadcasts, so Barry's coworkers could all attend his memorial service.
Carlton Houston, KFOR's news director, took them up on the offer, so every employee who knew and loved Bob Barry could attend his service.
When a coworker dies, one of the difficult logistical decisions is who gets time off from work to attend their funeral. It's easy to understand why it's difficult. Can you afford to shut down for hours or even a day? Obviously, with a news station, that's not possible. Other types of businesses - large and small - struggle to balance honoring their employee while serving their customers.
What's the right thing to do? There are as many answers as there are businesses. In Friend Grief in the Workplace: More Than an Empty Cubicle you'll learn how other businesses confronted this challenge. (Pre-order information coming later today.)
Click here to read more about Bob Barry and the memorial service his coworkers were able to attend - thanks to their competitors.
