Day 5 Addendum

A Helpful Hint for Employers

If you are an employer and you sense that your employees are exhausted and stressed, you might think that offering them a chance to “talk to someone,” via an employee assistance hotline, is the thing to do. It’s well intentioned, and these programs are certainly essential. However, you should know that under certain circumstances, this suggestion can actually be received as insulting. Here’s how it feels:

It feels like I’m walking home from the grocery store carrying 15 heavy bags, when a friendly neighbour approaches. “It looks like you are struggling with all those bags,” she says. “Would you like to talk about it? I can teach you a meditation exercise to help you cope.” The problem is that at this moment, I don’t want to learn to cope. I want someone to take some of the bags.

You might not be able to help, and you might feel bad about that. But in that case, you’re honestly better off just walking on by.

Especially if you’re the one who handed me the bags.

Day 6

Comments

  1. Dan Leckman12 July 2020 at 18:37

    Well...were they letting you talk about it or giving you 2 seconds spiritual solutions that are as meaningless as they sound? Cuz that hotline sounded wonderful if they let people talk, but if they were trying to 'fix' people, then that's highly problematic.

    ReplyDelete

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