Gear_Up_Katy_St.md

• What role has empathy played in your life and how has it helped you?

  I try to be as empathetic as possible. Sometimes I fail, most of the time I succeed. Oftentimes I am in need of empathy from others. Going through the articles, I was reminded of a time when I was riding the NY subway with my husband and there was a man across from us that was struggling to sit up and was vomitting Doritos. My husband got up from his seat, helped to get him upright and found a nurse to care for him, all the while I was trying to avoid him like the plague. It has become very important to me to attempt to be empathetic towards others because we can all be kind and do better.

• How does empathy help you to build better software?

  As humans, we all process things differently. We may not navigate through a website the same way as another person. We may want something to display differently because our brains approach the file in a way that is different than the person who created it. If we can empathize with others we can create projects that not only benefit us but others as well.

• Why is empathy important for working on a team?

  First and foremost, because we can be empathetic! If we utilize our skills to build empathy we are more likely to form stronger working relationships with others. If we collaborate on a project together and are empathetic towards eachother we may learn more about an others working style and therefore create better work. If a colleague has to step away from a project it is more valuable to know why they stepped away and have empathy than to make assumptions that may not be true.

• Describe a situation in which your ability to emphasize with a colleague or teammate was helpful?

  When I was working for a large publicly traded company I was in a department that had a total of two employees, including me. The woman that I worked with was at least forty years older, had grandkids, was on the path to less responsibility (by choice) and had a very ill husband. At a Christmas party I remember this tiny, frail woman carry her husband, who was in a wheelchair, down a few steps so that he could join us for dinner. Within six months he had become even more ill, and eventually passed. I was left to head the department, overloaded with work and stressed to the max, while my colleague took time to heal. Because I was aware of what she was going through, I was happy to take on the extra work and stress to help her out. Had I been unaware of her circumstances I am sure that I would have considered this experience to be a very large burden.

• When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these senarios?

  It is extremely difficult for me to be empathetic in a professional setting if a co worker has a trying or rude personality or if they simply will not take any step to help themselves out of a negative situation. When faced with a teammate that is difficult to be empathetic towards, I need to take a step back and understand what is happening to cause them to behave in a undesirable manner. Once I am aware of what is happening in their life it makes it all that more easy to empathize with them. This will most likely result in a better working relationship for the both of us.