Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Hey Devin — how do you communicate when an employee dies? Especially when that individual made an impact on multiple teams.
Goodness, this one hits differently. It’s truly one of the hardest things you’ll ever be asked to do as a communicator, and I don’t say that lightly — because the pressure to “get it right” is very real, and the stakes feel enormous. I’m so sorry if you’re navigating this right now.
I’ve had to navigate this myself, earlier in my career than I ever expected. A manager I worked with passed away from breast cancer, and I remember the weight of figuring out how to handle it — what to say, who needed to hear it first, and how to make sure people felt held rather than blindsided.
Here’s what I learned, and what I’d pass along to you: start with people, not a message. Before anything goes in writing, do your best to bring people together — in person if you can, or on a Zoom call if you can’t. Start with the people closest to that individual: their direct reports, their immediate team, the colleagues who worked alongside them every day. Those are the people who deserve to hear it from a human voice, not a notification. A word of caution here: be thoughtful about how you set up that call. A vague calendar invite landing out of nowhere (especially from HR or senior leadership) can send people into a spiral before the call even starts. If you can, give it a neutral but human title, keep the invite list tight so it doesn’t feel ominous, and if at all possible, have someone reach out individually beforehand so no one is walking in completely cold. An email or a Slack message landing in someone’s inbox is a hard way to receive news like this, and so is a mysterious meeting request.
From there, think about it like a cascade. Once the closest “circle” has been notified, you can widen the communication — to adjacent teams, then to the broader organization if appropriate. Not every death needs a company-wide announcement, and that’s okay. The question to ask is: did this person touch the work and the lives of people across the org? If yes, the company deserves to know. If their impact was more contained, a department-level communication may be more fitting — and more personal.
When it does come time to put something in writing, keep it human. Acknowledge the loss plainly. Share something true about who they were… not a résumé rundown, but something real. Give people a place to go if they’re struggling, whether that’s an EAP (employee assistance program) resource, a team gathering, or just an open door. And if your organization has a regular newsletter or internal publication, that can be a meaningful place to return to their memory — a brief acknowledgment that says this person was here, and they mattered.
The truth is, there’s no perfect message for a moment like this. What people remember isn’t whether the subject line was exactly right — it’s whether someone showed up for them. Your job here is to make sure that showing up actually happens.
Sending lots of love! You’ve got this. And I’m so sorry you have to.
