Grief does not wait outside the office door. It comes to meetings. It answers emails. It leads teams. It hits deadlines. And often, it stays hidden beneath performance, behavior, silence, and operational strain. In this episode of _At Work, Under Pressure_, Jessi Beyer sits down with Patricia Bravo of The Empathetic Leader to talk about grief literacy, bereavement leave, leadership, loss, workplace support, and what organizations need to understand when grief enters the room. Patricia explains why grief at work is not limited to the death of a loved one. It can include professional loss, identity loss, relationship loss, role changes, missed promotions, organizational restructuring, AI-driven job changes, and any loss that changes what someone thought their life or career would become. She also shares why leaders do not need to become grief experts, but they do need language, awareness, presence, and the ability to check in over time. In this episode, Jessi and Patricia discuss: • Why grief is already in the room at work, even when no one names it • What grief literacy means and why organizations need it • Why the hierarchy of “acceptable grief” causes harm • How leaders can support employees when grief resurfaces months later • Why bereavement leave alone is not a complete grief response • What to say, and what not to say, when someone is grieving • Why accompaniment matters more than trying to fix the loss This episode is for HR leaders, executives, managers, leadership development professionals, workplace culture leaders, and anyone who wants to support people with more humanity when loss changes their lives. Because the question is not whether grief will come to work. It is whether leaders will know what to do when it arrives.