Empathy In The Workplace | Meaning

What is empathy in the workplace? 

In day-to-day life, you spend half of your precious time with people in your workplace, or meetings, etc. If you are spending 40 hours per week on your work, there must be empathy and compassion in the workplace. Empathy in the workplace can build a strong relationship with your clients, peers, or respective heads.

Why is it necessary to have empathy in the workplace? Let us explore with an example. You are in an appraisal meeting with your manager, and you have certain expectations with the manager to behave in a calm, kind, and attentive way to discuss how to be a better person in your job. If you happen to see an unreceptive manager, you hesitate to approach them for your work in the future. Some employees may even resign from their jobs due to the uncooperative environment. If there is empathy in your work environment, you will definitely become an indispensable part of your team or work.

Ways to build empathy in the workplace:

•       Try to listen to the other’s problems.
•       Always pay attention to something that is happening near you.
•       To encourage or develop good communication, always send, and receive feedback in the workplace.
•       Develop a good and meaningful relationship with the peer and the managers.
•       Try to help or mentor your juniors in the workplace.

Let us explore a practical example of maintaining empathy in the workplace. If you are working in a telecom service center, an old customer approaches you with an issue in his 3G network. After hearing the issue, you rectified it and learned that they accidentally changed the option by switching on airplane mode. Instead of shouting or looking down at them, you correct the issue first, fix the problem, explain to them the issue, and teach them the steps to resolve it if it happens again. In this way, you can maintain empathy in the workplace.