Staring at the Finish Line: Coworker Death, Mortality Cues and Career Choices

19.03.2026 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR

ABSTRACT

Career choices shape both life-course trajectories and organizational performance. These choices are based on individuals’ values about work and life, and their perceptions of their time horizon. Extreme events, such as the death of a colleague, can shift these factors by making mortality salient and prompting a reassessment of priorities. Using linked Danish employer–employee administrative data, we exploit unexpected coworker deaths in small firms to identify the effects of mortality cues on career choices. Following a death, employees are more likely to leave the focal firm – even though, on average, staying would have yielded higher subsequent earnings – and the effect is stronger when the employee is closer in age to the deceased. Exposure also reduces working hours among both movers and stayers and is associated with a prosocial shift, including greater transitions into nonprofits and higher charitable giving. Together, the findings indicate a revaluation of work versus non-work priorities. We discuss the implications for how firms may anticipate and retain strategic human capital after mortality shocks.

Lieu

Bâtiment: Uni Mail

Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40
1205 Geneva

Room M 3250, 3rd floor

entrée libre