When reading the headline, many of us may have instinctively thought, “Of course I show empathy!” But the reality is that employees often don’t feel they’re treated in ways that show empathy. The employer-employee relationship is often seen by employees as more adversarial than supportive.
Merriam Webster defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another … ”[i] Employers may feel as though they understand an employee’s situation, but unless they’re actually being sensitive to it and showing that sensitivity, it likely won’t come across that way.