10 Bosses and Coworkers Whose Kindness Came as a Rooftop Key, a Ride Home, or a Phone Call

People
10/07/2026
10 Bosses and Coworkers Whose Kindness Came as a Rooftop Key, a Ride Home, or a Phone Call

People don’t get promoted for their kindness but it’s the reason they are remembered and loved in their workplace. Researchers Pansini, Buonomo and Benevene studied compassionate leadership and found something worth paying attention to. Kindness and compassion at work improve employee wellbeing and drive higher engagement.
That matters far more than any job title or work-life balance policy a new manager could ever put in place. These 10 real office moments teach us that the best leaders are not defined by authority. They are defined by how human they were willing to be.

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  • I started my job as a new manager 2 weeks ago. I have noticed that our cleaning lady always looked sad. She mostly didn’t talk to anyone.
    One day when I stayed late, she was out there cleaning. When I finished my work, I decided to go introduce myself and talk to her. When I said hi and talked to her, she seemed surprised, but I saw how joy appeared on her face. I asked where she lives, and it was on my way home, so I offered her a ride.
    When I offered that, her face filled with tears. She told me, “I have been working here for 5 years, nobody ever offered me a ride.” On our way home, I got to know her. She is 65 and lives with her husband. Although they receive a pension, it’s not enough to take care of themselves and they don’t have kids or any relatives, so she was working in our office.
    I didn’t offer her any money or anything because I didn’t want her to feel bad, and also talking to her made it obvious that she wouldn’t take money if I offered. I just tried doing small things for her at work from that day on, and I saw that it made her day.
    She became more cheerful and it was a great joy to see her face lit up. She told me later that ride was the first kindness anyone at the office had shown her in 5 years.
Serena / Bright Side

Has a new manager ever shown you unexpected kindness that made you realize a healthy work-life balance starts with the person leading the team?

  • A new General Manager moved into that role and completely changed the terms of a store layout redesign project we had almost completed. We had to go back and revise multiple store layouts, and my boss rolled up his sleeves with me and said, “We met the goal at the time, the goal has moved, we’ll meet it again.”
    He could’ve easily thrown me under the bus, but instead stood beside me while people were driving the bus towards us. He quietly praised my work while we were taking public hits, he took the hits with me and helped me understand and survive the corporate dynamics around it.
    When I was offered a significantly better opportunity elsewhere, he was honest about the prospects of advancement with the company and wished me well.
    I recently got back in touch with him after several years, he’s retired now and I’m unemployed after 11 years with that next company because our location was shut down. He immediately offered up a reference for anything I’d need one for. After all these years, nothing I will ever do has a corporate value for him, yet he’s still willing do whatever he can for my continued career success.
    I would gladly run through walls for several former bosses, but that man is Patton for me. Anything he’d ever ask of me, I’d drop things and charge ahead, regardless of the odds.
  • I requested unpaid leave to donate stem cells to save a stranger’s life. My boss said no. I went anyway. He fired me. “Your personal choices are not our problem!” I left without a word.
    A month later he called. He was crying. He said, “You should know I’ve thought about this every day since.” He knew exactly what I was doing when he said no, just decided the deadline mattered more. Told himself it wasn’t his problem, that I’d made a choice and so had he, that’s what he kept telling himself the first few weeks.
    Then a colleague mentioned off-hand yesterday that the person I’d donated to had made it. My boss said he went home that night and couldn’t sleep. Called me immediately the next morning.
    He needed me to know he got it now and he realized what he’d dismissed and he’d been wrong about what mattered more. He offered me my job back. I didn’t accept it, but I told him the call itself was a kindness I wouldn’t forget.
John / Bright Side
  • My previous boss had a reputation for being stern. But working more closely with him, I realized he had an exceedingly dry sense of humor (which I deeply appreciated).
    He was consistent in manner and expectations. He made sure you have the resources needed to do the job, including not only tools and training but time. He was flexible and understanding when life happens. He understood the jobs of all the people under him, and had done all of those jobs himself at one point.
    He was slow to give up responsibilities until he knew you fully understood. But once he delegated a responsibility, he never micromanaged. He protected his staff, giving credit to the team and accepting blame himself.
    We did a fair amount of business travel together and he was a pleasure to spend time with. We would have dinner and drinks together every night on the road. As accomplished as he was in his field, he was also just an interesting guy.
    I loved hearing about his life. He never offered advice, but was excellent at giving it when asked.
  • My favorite manager always had my back. She always went above and beyond. I could go to her for anything as her door was always open without judgment. Rather than blame or point the finger, she was encouraging and always asked what and how we can learn from this.
    She gave me the resources I needed and always made time to meet. She gave me autonomy and believed in me and my work ethic. She made sure she publicly recognized my work in front of others and gave me credit where it was due.
    She was really invested in my personal growth and wanting me to excel in my role and gave me a say in how I should conduct my role and how my 30-60-90 day learning plan would look like. She did protect me and shield me from the larger scope of office dynamics.
  • I was the Department Head of a little department of 4 people at work. We got along well, but weren’t friends.
    When I bought a new house I had a housewarming party, and of course invited all my work staff. One of them brought me the most thoughtful housewarming gift! It was probably the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received: she had sketched a picture of my house, then had it made into stationary for me.
    Little notecards with her drawing of my house on the front, and little envelopes to go with, presented in a nice new basket with a bow. Wasn’t that amazing! From someone I didn’t even consider a friend I received the most wonderful, thoughtful gift in my life.
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  • My previous boss was just a fantastic person. He treated everyone equally, and had the steadfast belief that every single person could be a leader if given the right opportunity. So that’s what he did — give every single person in the workplace the opportunity to be a leader. If you wanted it, it was there for you.
    He sent me to professional development courses when he saw it was something I showed interest in. He asked me to lead meetings. He would introduce me to high up officials not by job title, but by stating my name and telling them about something important I contributed to work lately in the last few months.
    I respected him because he respected me so much, but I never felt like he was “bossing” me around. He’d always meet with you like you were having a conversation and take your comments seriously. He admitted when he made mistakes and would ask for your suggestions to improve things, and then actually use them and give you credit when they worked.
    I never thought I would admire a boss so much, but I delivered part of his eulogy after he passed last year. I miss him so much and don’t think I’ll ever enjoy work again like I did when I worked for him.

Did someone at work ever remind you that work-life balance starts with being treated like a human being first?

  • I live in the Midwest and the snowstorm last winter was terrible. So my car battery completely went out. I was taking an Uber to and from work for a couple of days.
    When my coworker found out, she offered to take me home so I wouldn’t have to take an Uber. Then she told her husband about my car situation and he came to my house to replace my car battery in the cold. He didn’t let me pay him but I did pay him for the new battery.
    This was my first time meeting him! They are such a lovely couple.
  • I was lucky to have a leader during my prime years who pushed me to handle anything and anyone across tech, communication, and leadership. He had also started from scratch in his early years, and he taught me how to take calculated risks and build products from scratch all the way to market.
    He was highly proficient at developing team skills, to the point where our small team was able to design and deliver products generating millions in quarterly revenue.
    Unfortunately, I later ended up in the wrong environment, where leadership was driven more by yes-man culture, blame engineers, and fear-based control that slowly destroys teams instead of encouraging ownership and real engineering.
    If you ever find a leader who protects you even when you are not in the room, and who is willing to take risks for the team, follow and learn from them while you can. In this industry, real leaders are extremely rare!
  • My sister passed away on Monday. I asked for a few days off. By Tuesday my director said, “Personal situations aren’t professional excuses.” I kept working.
    3 weeks later he stopped at my desk. He pressed something cold in my hand. My pulse jumped. It was a key to the rooftop. He said that he used to go up there when things got bad, that nobody else knew about it, then walked away.
    I went the next morning before anyone arrived and just sat there with the whole city in front of me. I went back a few times when I was feeling bad.
    I found out later from a colleague that his own father had passed away just days before he gave me that key. He’d taken one day off and come back like nothing happened. He never said a word. The colleague found out through HR records when she noticed the bereavement day.
    But somewhere in the middle of carrying all of that himself he thought of me. I feel like he regretted his earlier words. A few months later, I saw him leave a coffee on a coworker’s desk, the same quiet kindness, passed on.
Josh / Bright Side

Tell us about the leader whose compassion reminded you that real leadership has nothing to do with a title.

Some people just decide to be decent and kind. Whether it is a new manager in their first week, a coworker who noticed something nobody else did, or a boss who has been there for thirty years. They all made the same choice and that is to lead with compassion.
Check out more workplace kindness stories here.

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