Thanks for jump-starting this important conversation. I completely agree that we need to humanize our workplaces - and our classrooms, our public policies, our police forces, our healthcare system, our economic system, etc....
On a tangential note, I'd to put Kritikka Sharma onto your radar. Check out the work she's doing to dignify dying at https://www.maajhi.com/
I recently interviewed her for my podcast and I discovered that "death literacy" is fully aligned with purpose + empathy.
Yes! We need more empathy! I feel empathy is where all starts. I love that word. I wish companies/everyone realize how important that is, that more human part! When you care and give support we/all come back around stronger and thankful.
We need to feel comfortable enough to ask when we are not feeling well and need to go home because you just can’t contain yourself -I have requested this many times…- and/or take a personal day off. I guess you build that trust and relationship. But also, we might not know how to ask for help… I am fortunate to have landed on a great place where they do ask if everything is okay or if I need support. TG.
Would it be too, that the bigger the company/workplace the colder, careless, less human it is?
It's so true - empathy just a basic, baseline need; something that makes all of us better. It's hard to see why there isn't more of it ... until we realize ... capitalism. ; - /
I love hearing that you feel comfortable with your boundary -- that you know what you need to ask for and when. I think as folks (I almost wrote women but then I realized we actually really need men to own this also!) claim their needs and share openly about doing so, everyone around them will learn and grow from that. Bosses + leaders included. I think we're in an era of folks claiming what they need, from mental health time to good pay to safety and whatever else.
It's interesting, I've been thinking about that question about bigger companies + less human action ... for the most part, I don't necessarily think it's true. I think it comes down to individuals. There are really phenomenal people working inside big corporations, people who will bend the rules and shield their teams and rally for change ......... and there are some real jerks running small businesses and getting away with treating people unfairly.
But maybe another way of looking at it is that on smaller teams and in smaller companies, all people probably do have more awareness of what everyone else is doing + contributing, which I think leads to more understanding and empathy in general. But it's hard because ... we can't control for jerks and unhappy people who mess up the equation! ; - )
I have no expertise in this area other than being a fellow griever, so I’m going to briefly share an experience I had with working and grieving.
I used to be an occupational therapist at a skilled nursing facility, where each therapist was assigned a patient load for the day. One particularly bad day of grieving for me I went to work (two hours late because of said grieving), but couldn’t make it in to my first patient because I was having a panic attack. I’d holed myself into one of our offices and after trying for too long to calm myself down I texted my boss, who came and found me (we did not have any sort of close relationship). I explained what was going on and she immediately said leave, go home, take tomorrow off too, and we’ll figure out the schedule. I have no idea how she made it work and she never told me. I know it was a huge challenge to divvy out my caseload for two days when we were already short staffed. But she saw what I needed without having to ask and dealt with the downstream consequences. Obviously this was an acute situation, but given how upset I was it could have gone poorly if my boss had been a different sort of person.
That's great, Lisa - I love that you were able to take that time. I'm curious though, if you see a possible way that things might have been handled earlier, so that it didn't have to come to that difficult moment in the office.
Thanks for jump-starting this important conversation. I completely agree that we need to humanize our workplaces - and our classrooms, our public policies, our police forces, our healthcare system, our economic system, etc....
On a tangential note, I'd to put Kritikka Sharma onto your radar. Check out the work she's doing to dignify dying at https://www.maajhi.com/
I recently interviewed her for my podcast and I discovered that "death literacy" is fully aligned with purpose + empathy.
Now, I'm off to read Michael's reply.
Beautiful, thank you Anita.
And will you share the name of your podcast?
Purposeful Empathy: https://tinyurl.com/AnitaNowakYouTube
Krittika's episode is up.
Yes! We need more empathy! I feel empathy is where all starts. I love that word. I wish companies/everyone realize how important that is, that more human part! When you care and give support we/all come back around stronger and thankful.
We need to feel comfortable enough to ask when we are not feeling well and need to go home because you just can’t contain yourself -I have requested this many times…- and/or take a personal day off. I guess you build that trust and relationship. But also, we might not know how to ask for help… I am fortunate to have landed on a great place where they do ask if everything is okay or if I need support. TG.
Would it be too, that the bigger the company/workplace the colder, careless, less human it is?
Thank you Laura!
It's so true - empathy just a basic, baseline need; something that makes all of us better. It's hard to see why there isn't more of it ... until we realize ... capitalism. ; - /
I love hearing that you feel comfortable with your boundary -- that you know what you need to ask for and when. I think as folks (I almost wrote women but then I realized we actually really need men to own this also!) claim their needs and share openly about doing so, everyone around them will learn and grow from that. Bosses + leaders included. I think we're in an era of folks claiming what they need, from mental health time to good pay to safety and whatever else.
It's interesting, I've been thinking about that question about bigger companies + less human action ... for the most part, I don't necessarily think it's true. I think it comes down to individuals. There are really phenomenal people working inside big corporations, people who will bend the rules and shield their teams and rally for change ......... and there are some real jerks running small businesses and getting away with treating people unfairly.
But maybe another way of looking at it is that on smaller teams and in smaller companies, all people probably do have more awareness of what everyone else is doing + contributing, which I think leads to more understanding and empathy in general. But it's hard because ... we can't control for jerks and unhappy people who mess up the equation! ; - )
Yeah that is true!
I have no expertise in this area other than being a fellow griever, so I’m going to briefly share an experience I had with working and grieving.
I used to be an occupational therapist at a skilled nursing facility, where each therapist was assigned a patient load for the day. One particularly bad day of grieving for me I went to work (two hours late because of said grieving), but couldn’t make it in to my first patient because I was having a panic attack. I’d holed myself into one of our offices and after trying for too long to calm myself down I texted my boss, who came and found me (we did not have any sort of close relationship). I explained what was going on and she immediately said leave, go home, take tomorrow off too, and we’ll figure out the schedule. I have no idea how she made it work and she never told me. I know it was a huge challenge to divvy out my caseload for two days when we were already short staffed. But she saw what I needed without having to ask and dealt with the downstream consequences. Obviously this was an acute situation, but given how upset I was it could have gone poorly if my boss had been a different sort of person.
That's great, Lisa - I love that you were able to take that time. I'm curious though, if you see a possible way that things might have been handled earlier, so that it didn't have to come to that difficult moment in the office.