A supportive manager, a thoughtful coworker, or simple empathy during tough times can boost employee morale and improve mental health. These small acts can often create lasting, positive change in the workplace.
1.
A new girl joined our office. By the third day the gossip started. She smelled really bad. I pulled her aside, “You need to handle your hygiene.” She said gently, “I’m trying.” I said, “Try harder.” Next day, she still reeked.
I was about to fire her when security pulled me aside and said, “She lives in her car. Parking lot. Every night. She has a 4-year-old in a car seat who stays with her sister during the day. She took this job because it was the only one that didn’t require an address.” I told a woman living in her car with a child to handle her hygiene. She said, “I’m trying.” She was. Harder than anyone in that building.
By Friday, the same people who whispered about her pooled first and last month on an apartment. No names. Just a note: “You said you were trying. We believe you.”
Three years later she’s the best employee I’ve ever managed. That note is still in her desk. Laminated. And every new hire’s first week I tell them this story. So nobody ever says “try harder” to someone who’s already giving everything they have.
2.
The light in my boss’s office stays on until 11:00 PM every single night, and we all joke about his “workaholic” lifestyle. I forgot my keys last night and had to go back up, expecting to find him hunched over a spreadsheet. The office was dead silent, but the light was still humming.