Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 – the theme is Kindness

We go to work to be part of a money making entity, so that we can ge paid and feed our family, but what we mustn’t forget, is that all companies consist of human beings. Without people, business wouldn’t be. And for us humans to function, we need to feel truly valued, heard and understood.

So of course when you run a business, kindness matters. It very much matters to the people you collaborate with, your suppliers and your employees.

We can’t dismiss kindness as something unpractical and sentimental anymore, something that doesn’t belong in business. And we need to understand that people can feel unwell even if they don’t show up with a runny nose and a fever. That the underlying stress of feeling undervalued or being treated with disrespect can cause longterm mental illness, and this is often hidden under layers of shielding protection which comes in different shapes and forms, until it all cracks and the person can’t cope anymore.

We’re slowly discovering what kindness means on a larger scale. That kindness is powerful and not weak. That we’re dependent on it to survive and that it’s been lacking to such a degree in what we call our modern society, that we’re burning our workforces to pieces.

We’ve forgotten the importance of kindness, prioritising efficiency and financial return. But when a pandemic hits the world, we’re suddenly dependent on the ripple effect of complete unconditional cooperation from top to bottom, human compassion and the belief in kindness to all.

And we’re surprised that in the end, this is our biggest tool of survival.

Kindness. Not money.

Remember that when you go back to work.