A true story. A health care worker is truly struggling to do her work and caring for a son who has had a crash accident. She has no other means but finding time here and there for a first stage of intense rehabilitation that entails travelling to a distant centre. It just does not work.
Before her manager becomes aware, he has a visit from some of her colleagues who hand him a list of names. All are names of people who want to donate one day of their annual leave, their official holiday, to their colleague in serious need. In total, the number of days that could be accumulated was around a third of a full year. This is the number of people who had signed the list and offered one day of their holidays.
An HR logistical nightmare, but it happened.
I don’t know about you, but when I see human generosity in action, I reconcile myself with the human condition. And sometimes I need that reconciliation big time.
This collective action did not reach the front page of a newspaper. In fact, many like me only became aware of it through the context of one of our Viral Change [1]™ programmes where we were looking for real stories of kindness and generosity. The story is true, because it was told by the manager who received that list, a Viral Change [1]™
Champion himself.
It never occurred to me that this could happen. I wonder how many other stories of solidarity may happen in our work places. Many may be invisible. At times it seems that we have reduced all to money. Putting money in an envelope, noble as it is, is actually easy. Giving your name to offer a day of your holiday is less. Those having the idea of collecting and organising are real heroes.
Once again, the best possible currency we have: our time. The most precious and scarce one.
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