Empathy Reflect.md

1. What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?

• I feel that empathy has been a huge factor in my life. It has helped me understand how to be a good friend. I have had issues with friends where we were arguing over an issue where both parties were "right."
• However once I realized what really hurt my friend was that I was more concerned with being "right" than I was with their feelings. As a result I apologized, droping the issue and we are still great friends to this day.

2. How does empathy help you build better software?

• I would say empathy, in any sort of insdustry, is vital to success. Being able to understand what a people really wants helps developers build for specific needs that people desire.
• This also helps introduce new concepts in familiar ways people. Understanding how people are used to using certain softwares allows new ones to be introduced with similar formats but with adjustments for user satifaction.

3. Why is empathy important for working on a team?

• Empathy is important for working with a team because you need to know how each member feels about the project going forward. If someone is worried or unhappy with their role in the project then it is much more likely that they will not give their best effort.
• It is also important to communicate you own feelings about the project. If you don't speak up about how you feel, you will be much more stressed with your work going forward.

4. Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.

• Recently at work a colleage was given an absurd amount of extra work on top of her already full plate. I noticed she was staying late and coming in early to try and get everything done. I felt she was slowing drowning in work and was to nice to ask for help. I had most of my work finished for the quarter and had plenty of extra time. So I offered to take some tasks off her plate and she was very thankful. We as a team finished all of our work before the quarter was out. We recieved praise for our great work.

5. When do you find it most dificult to empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?

• I found it very difficult to be empathetic when co worker's personal lives start becoming part of the professional life. Either I start resenting the coworker or really sympathizing depending on the situation.