11 Coworkers, Bosses, and Interviewers Whose Compassion Changed a Workday for Good

I’d been out of work for four months, and my savings were almost gone. So when a logistics company advertised a customer support role with French as a bonus, I wrote “conversational French” on my résumé, based on two years of school French.
The job interview went well. Marc, one of their senior agents, was sitting in on the panel, and about halfway through, Peter, the manager, nodded at him and said, “Marc grew up in Montreal. Say something to him in French.”
Half their clients were in Quebec. Peter didn’t speak French himself. I got out a “bonjour,” and the rest came out in Spanish, the only other language I know. Marc paused, turned to Peter and said, “The accent’s unusual, but the grammar is solid.” The offer came two days later.
On my first morning, I found Marc at the coffee machine and asked why he’d covered for me. He shrugged. “Nobody showed me any compassion my first year. Figured you could use some.”
His family had left Montreal when he was five, and they’d only spoken English at home, so he knew about six words of French. He had never corrected anyone, because in that company culture nobody admitted a gap.
We signed up for evening classes together that autumn, mostly to stop feeling like frauds. Last spring I sat on my first hiring panel as a senior employee, and when a candidate said her French was a bit rusty, Marc and I just nodded and asked what she had actually done. She started in June.

I’m fortunate with my job because it’s something I enjoy doing, gives me fulfillment, and pays well. But one of the things I love the most is that my boss is nice.
I’ve been having some issues at work, and those problems are taking a toll. I’ve been dreading going to work recently. I gathered my courage and sent my boss an e-mail about it. I confessed everything. My boss called me to his office, and he even called my manager, and the three of us sat down and worked on the issues.
I’m back at my desk, sighing in relief. And even though the issues will still persist, I know there are people who know of my struggles and are willing to help. My boss of all people! My manager gave me a caramel biscuit after lunch. It’s such a small gesture of kindness, but it almost made me cry.
Anyone reading this, if you’re a manager or the boss of a company, you can do so much with even the smallest of gestures. The people who work for you all rely on you. Take this chance, your power, to bring goodness.

One small act of kindness that made a big impact on me was when I was feeling particularly stressed and overwhelmed with work deadlines.
A colleague noticed my situation and, without any prompting, offered to help me with some of my tasks. Not only did she take on a significant portion of the workload, but she also went above and beyond by providing guidance and support throughout the process.
Her act of kindness not only relieved me of a tremendous amount of pressure but also showed me the power of empathy and teamwork. It reminded me that we are all in this together and that a little help and understanding can go a long way in creating a positive and supportive work environment.

The 4 a.m. alarm, the train, the sesame bagel I ate to calm my nerves: by the time I reached the furniture company for my job interview, I’d made a mess of the morning before anyone had asked me a question.
Gwen, from human resources, shook my hand and poured me some water. While I dug through my bag for my notes, she slid a napkin across the table. “Sesame seed,” she whispered, tapping her front tooth. I wanted to disappear, but we both laughed, and the rest of the job interview went better than I’d planned, since the worst had already happened.
Four days later the email arrived. An internal candidate had applied the day after my interview, and they’d decided to promote from within. Gwen added a line of her own: “You’d have been great. Keep going.” I sulked for a week and never saw her again.
After that, I kept napkins in my bag, and one morning that spring I handed one to a woman in a lobby who had flakes of croissant all down her lapel. She looked at me like I’d rescued her. I found a job elsewhere in May.

Recently got a work placement and have had some of the most helpful employees. I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and struggle sometimes with holding doors and carrying heavy objects. Whenever I’m struggling, my colleagues will help me and try sorta make my time there easier.
And even though I do have a physical disability, I am treated like everyone else which doesn’t make my experience there feel awkward. Besides that I’d like to thank everyone for their acts of kindness. Asking people if they need help can really have a positive impact on their day.

Elena walked into the room holding her four-year-old daughter, Mia, by the hand, and before anyone had said hello she apologized for it. “I’m so sorry, my babysitter canceled at seven this morning and I didn’t want to cancel on you,” she said, and I could see she’d rehearsed it in the car.
I was the human resources assistant on the panel, there to take notes for her job interview, and I fully expected Ruth, the hiring manager, to offer to reschedule. Instead, she crouched down next to Mia, asked what she liked to draw, and handed her a pen and the back of an old agenda.
And for the next fifty minutes we conducted the interview with a small voice in the corner explaining a purple dog while Elena answered everything we asked without once losing her place. When we wrapped up, Mia held her drawing up to Ruth and announced that it was the dog, and Ruth asked me for the tape from my desk and stuck it to her monitor right then, in front of all of us.
In the debrief, the two other managers on the panel told Ruth it had been unprofessional, and one of them said, “Compassion is lovely, but we have a process.” That was the company culture I’d been trained in, so I kept my eyes on my notes until Ruth reminded them that the benefits sheet I’d printed that morning listed a childcare allowance for this exact role, and asked which of Elena’s answers they thought had been wrong.
Nobody had one ready, and we moved on to the next candidate. The offer went out after we’d seen two more people, and Elena started as the newest employee on the team before the month was out.