SageOfCode/Pre-work Empathy

## Pre-work Empathy
1. What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?
    I currently supervise a team of 30 remote care agents. Empathy is a big part of my day to day duties, and it is the reason
    I have been successful in my role. Many of the agents that I supervise have children, in fact the majority of them do.
    They have unique challenges compared to the employees I managed at my last job, who were almost all college students.
    My team all work from home, and they can have distractions come up from their children and spouses, and I make a point to
    ensure that they know that I am aware that they have busy lives, and that I understand the struggles that they may be facing.

1. How does empathy help you build better software?
    Empathy helps to build better software, because there are so many people with so many different struggles, if you only look at
    an issue from your perspective, you may be missing the real cause of the issue, and miss out an opportunity to create a really
    amazing product that could help a lot of people.

1. Why is empathy important for working on a team?
    Empathy is important for working on a team, becuase everyone on a team has had a different background, and different life experiences,
    and if you do not make an effort to see things from a team mates perspective. you risk making that team member feel alienated. This can
    lead to someone on your team feeling like they do not belong, and that they are not able to contribute to the team effectively.

1. Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.
    In my current position, I have a coworker who can be very direct in an intimidating way. I have found that many of our team mates are afraid
    go directly to this team member, but she is also very knowledgable and senior in the role that we share. I was at first intimidated to go to
    her for assistance as well, but I started to see things from her perspective in how she worked, and I started asking her for guidance and
    letting her know that I really appreciated her help since she had so much more experience in the role than me. I think approaching her that way
    helped to ease her apprehensive nature, and now she is one of the go to people I reach out to with questions and issues.

1. When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?
    I find it difficult when I am managing a team, to be empathetic to my employees who who are mean spirited when working with their peers. Even
    if they are still polite to me, I get defensive for the other employees. I think the best way that I can work on this would be to try to see
    things from my employee's perspective, and try to see why they were frustrated with their coworker. That way I can reach out to them and help
    them to feel less threatened be their team mates, and more open to collaboration.
	1. What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?
	I currently supervise a team of 30 remote care agents. Empathy is a big part of my day to day duties, and it is the reason
	I have been successful in my role. Many of the agents that I supervise have children, in fact the majority of them do.
	They have unique challenges compared to the employees I managed at my last job, who were almost all college students.
	My team all work from home, and they can have distractions come up from their children and spouses, and I make a point to
	ensure that they know that I am aware that they have busy lives, and that I understand the struggles that they may be facing.

	1. How does empathy help you build better software?
	Empathy helps to build better software, because there are so many people with so many different struggles, if you only look at
	an issue from your perspective, you may be missing the real cause of the issue, and miss out an opportunity to create a really
	amazing product that could help a lot of people.

	1. Why is empathy important for working on a team?
	Empathy is important for working on a team, becuase everyone on a team has had a different background, and different life experiences,
	and if you do not make an effort to see things from a team mates perspective. you risk making that team member feel alienated. This can
	lead to someone on your team feeling like they do not belong, and that they are not able to contribute to the team effectively.

	1. Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.
	In my current position, I have a coworker who can be very direct in an intimidating way. I have found that many of our team mates are afraid
	go directly to this team member, but she is also very knowledgable and senior in the role that we share. I was at first intimidated to go to
	her for assistance as well, but I started to see things from her perspective in how she worked, and I started asking her for guidance and
	letting her know that I really appreciated her help since she had so much more experience in the role than me. I think approaching her that way
	helped to ease her apprehensive nature, and now she is one of the go to people I reach out to with questions and issues.

	1. When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?
	I find it difficult when I am managing a team, to be empathetic to my employees who who are mean spirited when working with their peers. Even
	if they are still polite to me, I get defensive for the other employees. I think the best way that I can work on this would be to try to see
	things from my employee's perspective, and try to see why they were frustrated with their coworker. That way I can reach out to them and help
	them to feel less threatened be their team mates, and more open to collaboration.