A young, vivacious woman gets a job at a local restaurant. She quickly makes friends because of her outgoing and friendly disposition. Everybody is fond of her.

Then, she dies in a car accident.

The loss affects everyone at the restaurant. Her young co-workers begin to feel isolated and confused. They can't focus at work and have difficulty performing their duties.

"She touched our lives. The initial reaction was just shock," said Jane Dille, director of human resources at the big Burrito Restaurant Group, which owns six restaurants and a catering company in the Pittsburgh area.

Not sure how to handle the situation, Ms. Dille turned to the Good Grief Center for advice.

It's an area of grief counseling that the Good Grief Center is hoping to expand because a death can be a leading event that affects an individual's ability to function in the workplace. Its Grief in the Workplace program is the only one of its kind in Pittsburgh.

A survey conducted by The Grief Recovery Institute Educational Foundation Inc. of Sherman Oaks, Calif., in 2003 found that medium to large businesses lose approximately $44.6 billion annually as a result of grieving employees.

"A person who is grieving after losing a friend or a co-worker has a loss of productivity and that affects a business," said Lulu Orr, executive director of the Good Grief Center.

This was particularly true in the case with the young waitress at the big Burrito Restaurant Group. Most of the co-workers had never experienced a death of a peer and didn't know how to cope.

"The impact was deep with her because she was so young," said Ms. Dille, who declined to identify the woman or name the restaurant out of respect for the employee.

Grieving is often misconceived as solely a personal issue that individuals overcome on their own. However, many people do not understand that a workplace needs to welcome grieving co-workers with compassion and understanding instead of ostracizing them. In fact, the grief recovery survey proved that grieving by yourself could lead to distraction and affects one's ability to work efficiently.

Participants of the survey reported that they felt their need and desire to communicate their feelings was not well received at their workplaces and it reduced concentration and led to poor performance.

Through the Good Grief workplace program, the center holds sessions with companies and individuals to teach them about grieving and how to handle grieving situations. Ms. Orr, who leads most sessions, promotes communication as a stepping stone to recovery.

"We provide tools for their employees to teach them how to welcome grieving," she said. "Don't avoid [grieving co-workers] because it makes it worse"

After Ms. Dille contacted the Good Grief center, employees were encouraged to attend Good Grief sessions to communicate their feelings of shock and confusion.

It helped to alleviate a lot of the suffering that would have otherwise remained bottled up within the individuals, Ms. Dille said.

"It was an advantage to share with one another because we had a community experience. When you are feeling isolated, that has a much more detrimental effect."

After the sessions, the employees were able to return to work and restore the previous level of productivity.

With its new location in Squirrel Hill and the relationships it anticipates building with the community, the Good Grief Center is hoping to make its Grief in the Workplace program more proactive to businesses needs.

"Its a way of having everyone receive basic information about grieving," said Lynda Hedfors, human resources director at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children.

Ms. Hedfors and her staff participated in the Grief in the Workplace program in 2006 as part of their ongoing training about grief. "We had tried a number of training approaches to help our staff to deal with occasions when someone passes away," she said.

Rather than reacting to a tragic loss, the school constructed a program where the staff will be equipped to handle grieving situations whenever it arises.