Conscious Empathy

𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙭 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 — 10 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚𝙨 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧.

Respect is mentioned 30 times more often in employee reviews as the #1 toxic element.

However, all five have the same impact on an employee’s view of company culture.

Quite frankly, when people are trying to maintain their health and well-being, as well as attending to their family’s basic safety needs, they have little tolerance for repeated and unapologetic bad behaviors in the workplace. 

Research conducted about incivility in the workplace found that 98% of workers surveyed over the past 20 years had experienced or witnessed rude behaviors. Incivilities have quickly turned some company cultures into toxic and unhealthy workplaces.

The data has been very clear: almost 48 million people in the United States quit in 2021. Resignations have risen globally as workers have reconsidered their values, purpose, and what is truly meaningful in their lives. Retention times among American employees 18-34 have dipped below an average of 1.8 years – indicating that some shifts are quicker than that.

Respect and human dignity, leaving the world a better place, living by one’s social values, and designing a personal legacy of one’s actions are what influence our behaviors and ideologies in the post-pandemic future.

While you can no longer change the past, now is the time to address the signals that leadership creates in honest and consciously empathetic ways that can be seen and felt throughout all layers of the organization.

Creating a culture of respect and empathy take time, focus, and alignment in the workplace. It does not make an impact from the middle; it must begin and continue from senior leadership to become a consistent strategy and employee expectation. If the words don’t match the actions, it is still a disconnect that breeds cynicism and futility.

❓ Have you experienced disrespect and other inequities in the workplace? How did they make you feel? Did they increase your intentions to leave that job? If you chose to resign, what were you hoping to find in your next workplace?