PREFACE: A LISTENING EAR

Empathic listening is a skill to be developed. ‘Listening’ may seem passive, but those who really listen, feel movement. I am becoming more and more aware of it. People who listen make a difference. I think it’s fascinating.

My stomach turned when I read Rita’s interview about her experience with toxic management. And when she described her contact with Nathalie, who works at the Career Guidance Centre, I had goose bumps: meeting someone after a long and lonely journey who ‘really’ listens to you and makes you feel recognised. Not just formally, but very authentically. Nathalie made a difference. Through her empathic listening, she got Rita up and running again.
Doesn’t every change, however small, start with listening? The observation that not everyone feels good about the strict male/female division only came to the public forum because there are people who were open and listened to the signals of those struggling with identity, their pain and needs.

And recently, I spoke to an executive about her well-run administrative team. She was surprised about the job satisfaction, results and constructive professional relationships between colleagues in times of working from home in light of the ongoing pandemic. During a follow-up interview with one of her employees, she kept asking questions, she told me. And that’s when they said: “It gives me wings to finally feel confidence from the management in the fact that we are doing our job well, even when we’re teleworking.”

Although one swallow does not make a spring, we take structural steps forward by providing a listening ear. We go from discrimination to enforceable rights, from a lack of trust in administrative workers to telework for all employees in the company, from toxic leadership to a policy that invests in leadership training … Rome wasn’t built in one day.
During a webinar with European trade union members, a Swedish colleague recently emphasised that what is needed to move from listening to structural solutions is dialogue and more dialogue. Structural social dialogue is the way forward. At all levels, we need to get around the table together … and listen … to get things moving.

May 2022 be a year in which someone genuinely listens to you. May 2022 be the year in which you experience movement.

Never Work Alone 2022 | Author: Sandra Vercammen | Image: Dries Luyten