My friend, Gina, lost a good friend during high school. At 16 years of age, Jay decided he couldn’t live with the pain of feeling alone and worthless any longer. So he ended his own life. At his funeral, hundreds of people celebrated his life and mourned his death. Gina said later, “What a profound sight to see so many people who cared about this boy who thought he had no one.”

 People all around us have hurts and anxieties that are hidden from daily office routines. We hide our own heartaches and fears in order to keep our work and personal life separate.  We don’t want people to know about our personal hurts and struggles.  So we mask, pretend, or cover-up.

 You may not know that the woman who is taking more than her fair share of free granola bars in the break room hasn’t had a good meal in three days—she’s making sure her kids get fed.  The annoying guy down the hall with the mindless chatter is trying to cover up the pain from his recent divorce.  And the girl who “knows it all” is running away from her own insecurities.

 You know, it’s not always about us and our needs.  Working together requires us to consider and respect the strengths and weaknesses of those we work with.   

 Listen for your co-worker’s unspoken requests for patience and understanding.  Reach out and ask for help when daily responsibilities are a little overwhelming.

 We’re all in this together.

 It’s about people.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under It's About People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.