Note: This article is based on the personal experience of author Jill Suttie, who tells us about her experience of showing empathy in the workplace.
I still remember the feeling I had when I had to tell my boss that I was pregnant; she had just hired me to work at the company, and I was sure that would upset her and disappoint her, and I thought she would probably fire me.
But when I told her about my pregnancy and expressed my concerns about taking a vacation, she reassured me, as she was not angry, asserted my right to take a vacation, and worked with me to make the transfer procedures smoother.
Her sympathetic response made me feel like she cared about me, and after all those years, I still thought she was the best boss I ever had.
This type of interaction is what organizational psychologists Monika Worline and Jane Dutton hope to prompt in their new book Awakening Compassion at Work; the book suggests that organizations and businesses are at their best when they pay attention to the emotional needs of their workers and show them empathy.
Why do we need empathy at work?
According to a survey of workers, suffering is widespread in work environments, where employees often feel unaffiliated, do not believe in their supervisors' appreciation of their talents and skills, understand the difficulties they face as employees while performing their work, or care about their suffering.
In addition, personal calamities - such as the loss of loved ones, divorce, and health problems - lead to emotional disturbances that extend to the workplace through their impact on performance.
However, many workers still point to their managers' silence and indifference to what they are experiencing, perhaps because they believe that their professional and personal lives should be separated or because they fear that their help offer may be wrong.
This approach is completely wrong, according to Worline and Dutton, who point to growing research that confirms that caring for the employees' suffering in the work environment does not hinder the organization's work but helps it to thrive and grow. Showing empathy for the suffering of employees improves their performance, strengthens their loyalty, and creates a safe atmosphere for learning, cooperation, and innovation, all of which affect the final results.
That is due to the ability of each to enhance collective potential, such as innovation, quality of service, cooperation, and adaptability, as well as the importance of empathy in achieving competitive advantages.
For example, customer service workers can communicate better with customers if they feel that someone cares about them, and an empathetic work environment will stimulate creativity and innovation because people feel safer in the face of risks and cooperation when they know that others care about them.
Amy Edmondson, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, conducted a study for the book that found that hospitals with high psychological safety levels were more likely to admit errors and work with patients to find solutions. Empathy is critical in achieving psychological safety because it enhances confidence and the ability to give, which affects organizations.
Four aspects of empathy
The book points out four aspects of empathy that employees must master if they are to respond appropriately to the suffering of others:
1. Observation
Pay attention to signs that someone is suffering a crisis, such as body language, tone of voice, or unusual work patterns, and inquire gently and privately about what is likely to happen.
2. Interpretation
Viewing people's suffering as genuine and valuable can sometimes be difficult, especially if we have unconscious automatic biases, such as the belief that people often deserve this misfortune or that groups of people do not deserve to be in good shape. Still, it is necessary to take functional measures to overcome this.
3. Sensation
It is compassion for others. Fortunately, we tend to show empathy and concern for the suffering of those we care about, so simple actions that improve communication, such as leaving the door open, sticking around after meetings, and setting down mobile devices when speaking with someone, lead to building relationships that naturally encourage our sympathy for the suffering of others.
4. Taking Action
Empathy can be done in any circumstance and directed to meet the needs of the person experiencing the suffering. Providing flexibility at work, reassurance regarding job security, listening to the suffering of others with empathy, and expressing your interest through rituals and notices can help show your sympathy.
The authors suggest several other ways in which an organization can find more opportunities to show empathy, including:
- Establishing small groups within large organizations, composed of people who accomplish combined tasks, may help build friendships among them.
- Holding periodic meetings that encourage employees to share their achievements and mistakes to make the work environment suitable for learning.
- Telling stories related to the organization's mission and achievements, focusing on those of humanity, and emphasizing the organization's commitment to doing what is good to inspire employees.
- Formal recognition of the importance of doing sympathetic acts reinforces the spirit of giving in the organization.
- Leaders share their weaknesses with their employees, fostering a sense of trust and security.
Obstacles to expressing empathy in the work environment
Worline and Dutton understand that some limits imposed by the work environment may stand in the way of showing empathy, things such as the approaching completion and delivery dates of work, which increase tension, conflicts between employees, and problems related to unavoidable competition, or the termination of some employees to reduce the size of the company. Therefore, Worline and Dutton offer scientific solutions that can be followed to overcome this.
For example, work environments vary in how they deal with reducing the size of their workforce. Some companies provide a lot of notices to employees and offer assistance with termination procedures, while others ask employees to collect their things and leave smoothly. However, companies in the second category may file lawsuits against them. Research indicates that it is better to consider the psychological state of employees, as this would reduce their suffering and reduce their tendency to file lawsuits.
Organizational goals that strive for success at all costs or prioritize showing off, limit the possibility of expressing empathy in the workplace. Instead, cultivating a sense of meaning that includes alleviating suffering can lead to a change in the work environment. A study of hospital guard staff found that those who consider their job duties a contribution to the public interest find their work more enjoyable and tend to take fewer vacations.
Significances that emphasize the importance of human value and interdependence promote empathy, and these values are reflected in words such as dignity, inclusion, respect, teamwork, cooperation, partnership, support, care, kindness, supervision, service, justice, and equity.
Worline and Dutton hope that the workers and employees who read the book will realize the benefits of encouraging empathy and taking the necessary steps to do something about it, which, in their opinion, is very intuitive.
According to Worline and Dutton, the challenge is no longer to find a justification for why empathy is essential in work environments. It is to create an atmosphere that encourages empathy in work environments.
How can we not support our sympathy expression for others after knowing the benefits?
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