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Kind things to do at work

Workplaces run on a lot of uncredited effort. These are about noticing it out loud — which is free, faster than you think, and much rarer than it should be.

Showing 1–30 of 68 ideas

• Leave the accessible toilet alone

  It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this

• Wait for someone who stammers

  Finishing the sentence of someone who stammers is meant to help and does the opposite every time.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Keep including the person whose language it is not

  Groups drift back into the majority language within minutes, and the one person left out never says anything.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this

• Offer somewhere quiet without making it a thing

  Loud rooms are genuinely painful for some people, and asking for quiet in a group is socially expensive.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Notice who eats lunch at their desk every day

  It is sometimes a preference and often the visible end of being outside every group in the building.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Make leaving early unremarkable

  Chronic illness, anxiety and pain all mean sometimes going home. The hard part is having to explain in front of everyone.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Ask something other than where they are from

  For anyone who looks or sounds different, it is the first question of every conversation, forever.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Say something when the room lets it pass

  A remark lands, everyone pretends not to have heard, and the target learns exactly who is in the room.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Ask what they did before they came here

  A great many people doing low-paid work were engineers, doctors or teachers somewhere their qualifications do not count.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tell a freelancer what the going rate is

  People new to freelancing price from fear. One honest number from someone established resets it permanently.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Caption the video you posted

  Captions serve deaf viewers, people in loud places, and anyone watching with the sound off — which is most people.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Pay the small invoice the day it arrives

  Late payment is the main reason small suppliers fail. Paying on receipt costs you nothing and can matter enormously.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Plan someone's first week, not their first day

  Onboarding is concentrated in day one, which is the day nobody retains anything.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Know when their important days are

  Everyone knows when Christmas is. Far fewer know when Eid, Diwali or Rosh Hashanah fall, or acknowledge them.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Explain the rule nobody writes down

  Every workplace, school and country runs on conventions that insiders cannot see and newcomers cannot guess.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Offer to put it in writing

  Spoken instructions vanish. For anyone with hearing loss, dyslexia or brain fog they may not have landed at all.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Warn someone what the phrase actually means

  'We should do this again sometime' means different things in different places, and getting it wrong is painful.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Learn to say their name properly

  People with unfamiliar names spend their lives being mispronounced and told it does not matter.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Say what you are pointing at

  'It's over there' is useless to someone who cannot see you gesturing. Words cost nothing extra.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Learn five signs and use them

  Hello, thank you, sorry, please, your name. Five signs is enough to change an encounter completely.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Find a chair before anyone asks

  Standing is the hidden barrier at parties, queues and exhibitions, and asking for a seat means explaining why.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Give one instruction at a time

  Stacked instructions fail for anyone tired, anxious, learning the language or processing differently.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Believe someone about their own symptoms

  People with invisible illness spend years being doubted, most often by people who mean well.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Be the second person to volunteer

  The first person to speak up takes all the risk. The second one makes it safe for everyone after.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tell someone how you got in

  Careers look like merit from outside and like luck and contacts from inside. Saying so out loud helps someone enormously.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Say plainly that you are glad they came

  Anyone new spends months privately unsure whether they are wanted or merely tolerated. One sentence settles it.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tell someone what you actually earn

  Pay secrecy is maintained by people like you staying quiet, and it costs the people with least information the most.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Notice the deadline someone is drowning in

  People rarely ask for help at work because asking reads as not coping. Offering removes the admission.

  An afternoonFreeA friend

• Find out who quietly fixed the thing

  Something broke, then it didn't. Somebody did that, usually out of hours, and nobody has said anything to them.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Notice the teenager who is doing the caring

  Hundreds of thousands of children care for a parent or sibling, and most are invisible to their school and neighbors.

  OngoingFreeA caregiver