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Recently, my mom has started having some health issues and, again, the team has
just really stepped up and been super supportive: checking in on me, making sure everything’s ok, telling me to take time to decompress or take her to appointments, because they’ll cover meetings and do anything they can to help make this time a little easier. So, I’ve definitely felt a lot of empathy from my team and the company overall.
With the tragic murder of George Floyd this past year, the company came out with really strong statements about what isn’t acceptable, and made a commitment to making a difference. There’s been a lot of action taken, including standing up special work teams and groups to try and combat the injustices and inequities that, unfortunately, we still see in the world. I am really excited and passionate about that work, and I think it shows a lot of empathy from the company. The big focus right now on wellbeing and self-care is becoming a bigger and bigger push, which is not something I would have expected a year or two ago. I just feel like it’s a whole new world and that there’s a lot of good going on when we’re trying to understand others.
: Can you share recent examples of how you have shown empathy to others?
: One thing that I’ve struggled with a little bit in my own development of empathy is that I tend to be a problem solver. I want to fix everything, and sometimes that’s not necessarily what someone who comes to you is looking for. So, I’ve tried to do a better job of just listening, or even asking, “Do you want me to try and find the solution or
do you just need to vent?” – just to kind of set a level playing field for us, so that we’re both coming from the same place. I try to turn my brain off as they’re speaking so that I’m not thinking, “OK, how can we fix this and how can we make it better?” So that’s something I’ve been working on for myself, but I love to be a listener for people and for people to feel like they can come to me with issues or to just bounce ideas off of me. It’s just something I try to work into my daily life.
A specific example is that I have a friend who has been through some traumatic experiences in her life. One day she happened to be with me when something kind of triggered her to have an emotional response to something, and I could tell that she just wanted to talk through what she was feeling. I tried to just listen and if I felt like she got stuck, I would ask kind of a probing question to help her continue working through it in her mind. It was definitely the first time I’d ever experienced anything like that, so I was worried that I was going to do something wrong, but then after the event, I texted her and asked if there was anything I should have done differently. She said, “No, it
was fine. You said just what I needed at the time.” So, I felt like that was hopefully the right approach: to give some time for processing and for me to think through how the event had unfolded, and then follow back up with her. I think it’s important to always
try to learn more from the experiences that you have in those kinds of situations, so that the next time something similar happens, you’re a little better prepared.
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