tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post6170211771890677858..comments2024-02-05T05:15:04.759-08:00Comments on Wandering Scientist: Weekend Reading: The Getting Used to It EditionCloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-50912391508131731202016-10-30T15:34:51.800-07:002016-10-30T15:34:51.800-07:00For a long while I worked in an office where famil...For a long while I worked in an office where family didn't matter and it was starkly obvious that the only family that mattered was the one in the office, headed by two totally dysfunctional patriarchs. I didn't have the chance to not-empathize with working moms there, but I knew right away what that lack of empathy looked like. I also knew that I didn't want to spend my career with those people specifically because, even if I didn't have a family of my own, I didn't want to work with people who thought that was ok. <br /><br />Mark Kirk's comment was an eyeroller but it's true. We hear that sort of tripe all that time.Revanchehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07293868300535734672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-34066109243693238852016-10-28T20:31:37.789-07:002016-10-28T20:31:37.789-07:00I've been lacking in empathy in a lot of ways ...I've been lacking in empathy in a lot of ways at various points in my life, but I do remember thinking that my company's three days of sick time per year (I think they later upped it to five days) was a ridiculously low number. At the time, I said that it seemed to me that the baseline should be 12 days, because, particularly if you had kids, it seemed to me that on average, someone in your household would be sick one day per month. And I didn't think that was generous sick leave, mind you. I thought it was an amount that would be workable.<br /><br />I also never criticized the parents who left work to go to their kids' events, because I remembered how much it meant to me to have my parents at my events--and because our company was clearly insane. Everyone worked hard, and longer hours than they should have, and more than one divorce was attributed to the company culture. And I figured that some day, if I were lucky, I'd want to be able to leave work for my child's events. Thankfully, my current workplace makes that possible.<br /><br />This doesn't get me off the hook for the other people to whom I have not shown that kind of understanding. But I have learned to listen more, and assume less. That's an ongoing process, but hopefully I'm getting better at it.Tragic Sandwichhttp://www.tragicsandwich.comnoreply@blogger.com