Office Offers Employees Complimentary Cream Cheese To Help Them Cope With The Death Of One Of The Managers
"Never thought I'd see the workplace equivalent of 'Press F to pay respects.'"
New Africa / Shutterstock After the death of an office manager, the rest of the team leaders decided to offer their employees something that would help them cope with the loss and connect with each other.
If you guessed an extra day of PTO or an office outing in the late manager’s honor, you’d be wrong.
Instead, the leaders decided to go with free food in the break room route.
The office leaders offered their employees complimentary cream cheese to help them cope with the loss of their manager.
One of the employees took to the subreddit r/antiwork to share a photo of the message the team leaders left out for them in the break room.
“Take an extra minute today,” a sign read with a heart emoji next to it. “Cream cheese in the fridge.”
Reddit
In smaller font underneath the message, the leaders shared that there were 7 containers of plain, 2 containers of strawberry, 2 containers of maple walnut, 2 containers of veggie, and 2 containers of garlic and herb cream cheese in the fridge that were up for grabs.
The employee added that there were no bagels or any other food items to put said cream cheese on, however. It appeared as if the employees were expected to eat the cream cheese by itself.
Many people believed that the gesture couldn't even be considered the bare minimum for when a member of the team passes away.
“Never thought I'd see the workplace equivalent of ‘Press F to pay respects.’ It's the perfect balance of an empty gesture and tone-deaf virtue signaling,” one Redditor commented.
“This sounds like a bad thought experiment. ‘For 60 seconds, you have unlimited cream cheese that you can't sell or give away, what do you do?’” another user joked.
prairie_eye / Canva Pro
“I don’t even know what else to do but laugh,” another user wrote.
Others suggested that the late manager’s favorite condiment must have been cream cheese, and the team believed that offering free cream cheese would be the best way to honor them.
While complimentary food and snacks are a kind gesture, the team members could have done more in the wake of one of their staff members’ death.
For one, they could have called a team meeting to alert all members of the tragic news and allowed them time to process it. They could have offered resources to their employees to support them through the grieving process, such as counseling.
They could offer a dedicated space to the late manager where employees who were especially close to them could pay their respects.
fizkes / Shutterstock
There were so many opportunities to do more, and yet they didn't.
Harvard Business Review noted that most managers are not trained to handle these circumstances, but it's essential to be sincere and "authentic." In addition, the outlet noted that making a gesture to keep the deceased employee's memory alive goes a long way in helping staff channel their grief.
Somehow, cream cheese in the break room without anything to put it on doesn't cut the mustard.
When employees are struggling, managers and leadership need to guide them.
Time off to attend memorial services or a dedication dinner in the manager’s honor would go a lot further than tubs of cream cheese.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.