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Empowering Resilient Workers with Empathy
Empathy. Sympathy. Compassion.
These are words that have swirled around my universe for as long as I can remember. Working in caring fields, both for humans and animals, these are facets of how I navigate daily. Empathy and sympathy have often gone together, but as I have studied the effects of trauma and
secondary traumatic stress, I realize that sympathy is not what people need. Empathy – being able to recognize another’s pain, distress, or world view and find something in myself that allows me to see their perspective and be in the moment with them (whether person or animal) – is the key to truly connecting with those around me. Compassion, an emotional response to real or perceived suffering that evokes a desire to help, is present in both humans and animals. What I have seen amplified in 2020 is the need for empathy and compassion in the face of unprecedented challenges: a perfect storm of health, economic, racial, political, and global upheaval. I would argue that empathy and self-compassion need to become parts of our personal and professional approaches to move
us forward into a post-COVID-19 world.
In my role as Director of Animal Welfare Training, empathy and compassion are at the heart of my team’s efforts to build resiliency and combat compassion stress and fatigue prevalent in our industry. We connect with liaisons at our sites – frontline leaders, supervisors, and human resource professionals – to create an emotionally engaged culture that recognizes the normal costs of caring that are part of our work. This includes development of peer counseling skills based on empathic listening, operational changes, engagement activities, and training opportunities. Practicing empathic listening creates genuine connections that help tap into others’ passions. Why do they want to come to
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Judy Murray
Director, Animal Welfare Training Charles River Laboratories
work every day and how can we support their growth? Part of this effort is encouraging self-compassion that makes room for the challenges people are facing today (e.g., supporting kids as they navigate remote, hybrid, and in-person learning; caring for parents and loved ones; coming back on site after being a remote worker; becoming a remote worker; and other challenges in their communities).
Recognizing that we all wear many hats that are impacted by events around us, people leaders and learning professionals have an amazing opportunity to bring empathy and compassion to the workplace. Practicing empathic listening builds connections, empowers people to find their own capacity to effect change, and builds resiliency in our workforce.