How To Practice Kindness at Work

The Three Tenets of Kindness at Work

How To Practice Kindness at Work
Always choose kindness

A Coimbatore-based octogenarian food stall owner made headlines by refusing to hike the price of her idlis during the lockdown, despite running into losses. Kamalathal, 85, didn’t want her customers, out-of-work labourers, to go hungry. Impressed, a prominent Indian industrialist recently pitched in to help her continue her noble mission.

Kindness has the power to transform mundane work into something more meaningful. Also, it has many scientifically proven wellness benefits: it can reduce stress, anxiety and depression, and improve energy and happiness levels. Kindness at work can work the same magic as well.

Kindness at work
Kindness at work

Kindness at work: Getting started

Practising kindness at work is not complex. Here’s how to start a cycle of kindness at your workplace.

  • Cultivate empathy

The opposite of kindness isn’t unkindness; it is indifference. In the daily rush to meet deadlines, patience and empathy are often forgotten. The solution, then, is to pause before you react. See your colleagues not as words on a screen or voices on a phone, but as humans with their aspirations, problems and frailties. Everyone deserves a kind word or gesture every now and then. This is the easiest way to start the circle of kindness!

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  • Be generous with your time and attention

Another great tip to practice kindness at the workplace. Chat with a colleague you don’t directly work with — someone you often pass in the hallway or a back-office worker you only know from group emails. Be genuinely willing to get to know your co-workers without needing work to be the only connector.

While it is often talked about in the context of disaster or conflict-related trauma, psychological first-aid should also be practised at work to promote kindness. The pandemic has made life tough for many people, driving them towards alcoholism, anxiety, and poorer mental health in general.

Be willing to engage with and help people who seem disturbed instead of shunning them. Your intervention could save someone’s health, career — even their life.

Here’s how to deal with an emotional breakdown at work

Promote workplace kindness
Promote workplace kindness 

Promote workplace kindness with Manah Wellness

The circle of workplace kindness can be started with small gestures. Just keep the above tips and recommendations in mind to gain long term benefits.

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