Mental Health: How Will Your Colleagues Remember You?

 15th Dec 2021

I recently read an article that really resonated with me.

The sentiment of it was that nobody will remember your salary/job title/hours that you worked but what they will remember is your character, time spent with them and how you made them feel.

It ties into the quote by Maya Angelou, ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’

In 2021 it has been so important how we conduct ourselves at work.  Our actions are so important to others’ mental health. Now more so than ever. 

The article got me thinking, what differentiates people in a workplace?

Who are the colleagues that made me feel something memorable over my working years?

Who has really had a positive impact on me, my career path, confidence and mental health?

I came up with the following people:

It’s the person who took a risk and saw my potential, even if I was not a classic fit for the role offered.

It’s the person who listened to me when I was anxious and took supportive steps to help me.

It’s the person who took time out of their own busy day to explain something to me which helped me to develop and learn.

It’s the person who celebrated my successes with me.

It’s the person who called to check that I was doing ok.

It’s the person who didn’t operate a ‘blame-culture’ attitude when I made a mistake and told me that it’s all part of the learning process. 

It’s the person that went out of their way to mention my contribution at meetings and made me feel valued.

It’s the person that worked hard to bring about reward for me.

It’s the person who regularly asked about my family and interests outside work, was genuinely interested and remembered these things. 

It’s the person who told me to take the day off to rest, to get my tooth sorted, to drop everything and go when someone close to me passed away or to take all the time I needed to visit the GP with my child.

It’s the person who included me on meeting invites and made me feel like my contribution was worthy.

It’s the person who went out and bought my lunch and brought it back to me because I just couldn’t seem to get a break that day. 

It’s the person who made me laugh when I was having a tough time. 

It’s the person that wrote me a really nice reference.

It’s the person that checked in on me many years later to see how I was doing, even though we hadn’t worked together for a while. 

It’s the person who spent their free time organising inclusive social events, making everyone’s life at work more enjoyable. 

It’s the person who was always there as a good listener if I was going through any kind of trauma, but not in an intrusive way. 

It’s the person that convinced me that I was doing a great job when I wasn’t sure. 

It’s the person who told me to try and keep things in perspective, it’s just a job. 

It’s the person that gave me a promotion, even though I was relocating and leaving the team.

It’s the person that was always there quietly helping me, making cups of tea and sorting small issues, to make my day run smoothly. 

It’s the person, who being utterly awesome at what they did, were an inspiration to do better, learn more and work harder. 

It’s the person that helped me deal with conflict or at the very least, was there in the wings supporting me.

It’s the person who didn’t have to go for the general workplace opinion and stood up for their own beliefs and inspired me to do the same.

It’s the person who showed amazing strength through personal adversity and their ability to get through what they did gives me the hope that I could potentially too, in that situation. 

It’s the person who actively included those who were at the fringes and made them feel welcome. 

It’s the person who was consistent, reliable and always showed up. Their actions matched their words and they always did what they said they were going to do. 

It’s the person who was a bit fiery because they were utterly passionate about what they did.

It’s the person who was the office entertainer, who brought much joy to work through laughter. 

It’s the person who was the office peacemaker, who brought people together. 

It’s the person who bravely called out toxicity and through this effected change for the better. 

It’s the person who supported my future career path, even when they didn’t want me to leave. 

It’s the person who accommodated my requirements when I needed to change my working hours.

It’s the person who asked me for support, training and coaching and demonstrated the difference it had made to them by making me proud of their future career.

I can think of people for all the above and I can remember how they made me feel. 

I won’t forget them. At the end of the day, this is so much more important than titles, status, money. 

If you see yourself in here, thank you!

Who can you think of that made you ‘feel’ something at work and had a positive impact on you?  

Written by Andrea Green