Empathy as a Trait

🙋 Questions
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I have always seen people telling you need to be empathetic.

How do you recognise this in a person particularly someone you are hiring?

I’m asking this because i have only seen people giving these statements but in reality they dont even follow or do what they say.They are very rude or unkind :frowning:

Have you ever been in such a situation?

Do you think empathy is an important trait or characteristic and Have you displayed or been empathetic with someone?

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It’s very hard to test for this on an interview. On an interview people can be who they want.

You could somehow trick them with tricks :stuck_out_tongue: Like drop a book with papers and see if they help picking it up. There are of course stories they could tell but stories are stories unless someone can confirm it.

You can straight up ask them

“Can you share an experience where you demonstrated empathy in the workplace?”

It could be less brutal like “Tell me about a time when you had to deliver negative feedback or criticism to a colleague. How did you approach the situation”

or “how would you handle somebody with ADHD or ASS?”

Always :slight_smile: It’s a crucial thing in building relationships and so creating a team.
You want them to be “part of the team”

I think we all have, empathetic doesn’t mean crying or laughing, it’s every single emotion at hand. It’s the ability to understand others. Have you not ever had a moment where you thought “omg I don’t want to listen to this person now but if I tell her she’ll get mad so I’ll listen”?

I often just want to talk about work because I love my job, but some people need to talk about their weekend on Monday and then it’s my job to show interests and be supportive, because when they are happy, the project goes better.

This sounds so cruel when I wrote it down but I hope you get the point? XD

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A person who has empathy is an important part of being a good tester/QA/quality engineer/quality leader/coach.

The good testers I’ve worked with have been patient, tended to listen more than talk and had a genuine level of care for their co-workers and the quality of their work. They haven’t just thought of themselves but have taken the time to step into the shoes of others – with genuine interest.

I’m sorry to hear you’ve experienced rude and unkind people even though those people have said they have empathy. That’s a real shame.

Amplifying @kristof’s comment. It’s hard to get a sense of someone’s level of empathy during an interview.

Here are some question ideas:

  • Can you tell me about a time where you really had to care about something? What did it look like? What happened? (see if they focus on human element or tech/product element)
  • I’d like to get your reaction to this: You hear from your line manager that you’re lacking empathy. What might you ask them to understand what’s happened?
  • How do you look out for your colleagues?
  • Can you give me an example of when you were actively listening? What was the outcome? What advice can you give me about active listening?
  • I’d like to understand your situation in more detail. Can you tell me more about something that’s important in your life? (see if they focus on others and a genuine interest in people)
  • Have you ever had a misunderstanding with someone at work? What did you learn from that experience?
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