On Empathy in the Workplace -
and bringing our humanity to work.
I’ll never forget that gray January day exactly one year ago. January 6th. I was new at my job, company, and profession. Barely holding it together as it was, in a global pandemic, dealing with the fallout of the 2020 election, and quarantining alone with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. The pressure was already turned all the way up and January 6th was the day that I finally broke.
America’s ugliest side was on full display with zero shame as they stormed the steps of democracy on live television. Spitting in the face of the blue uniforms they claimed to honor and demanding the violent deaths of politicians they opposed. I saw scenes I could only previously imagine through dystopian TV shows and movies narratives.
I slept on the sofa that night, with BBC running on my tv and the PBS live stream on my computer monitor across the room at my work from home setup. I didn’t want to miss a thing. I was still hoping someone would come out and announce this was all one big farce, that we could all stop worrying, that this was just a bad nightmare on top of all of the other horrible stuff we were already experiencing.
To say it was a challenge to keep my head on straight and focus at work in the days that followed is an understatement. I was running on…
