skylights
i love
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 7,756
- MBTI Type
- INFP
- Enneagram
- 6w7
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
[...] to help them move forward, it helps to communicate with them on their level initially, then "guide" them to helping find a workable solution. [...] Part of an empathetic response, I'd argue, is recognizing that this is his current need and that that's what he needs help with at the moment--not the problem of "not having a job," but of dealing with the loss.
Once he's somewhat emotionally stable, has processed his situation, and is looking to move forward, his emotional state isn't so important; here, helping him network to find another job will have a great impact.
right - to me, the benefit of empathy comes in mostly at being able to connect with a person at their current emotional state. it's not that this is always the most useful or important or necessary thing (though in moments of emotional turmoil it can be extremely helpful), but everyone always has an emotional state, be it calm or agitated or angry or blissful, and it facilitates communication to be able to get a sense of what that state is.
i also think there's a sort of humanistic bonding that goes along with it... again not always necessary or immediately useful, but there's a communal awareness that i imagine is probably good for humanity as a whole. NIMBY comes to mind (not in my backyard - a la putting a landfill near housing) - like if you're empathetic, you're more likely to jump to placing yourself in others' shoes and understanding how they could feel about a situation. lord knows it's one of the only things that keeps me sane at work when my manager puts unreasonable pressure on us - i know he's being pressured from higher management, too.