Yesterday was Empathy Day! Founded in 2017, Empathy Day is an annual event focused on building empathy through books – encouraging everyone to read, share books and put empathy into action. We’re proud to have worked with EmpathyLab on the project for the last few years and to have had our books included in the Read for Empathy guides, which feature recommendations of great empathy-building books.
This year, we’re delighted that The Suitcase by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros and Talking to the Moon by S.E. Durrant were included – you can find out more about them, and previous recommendations, in an earlier blog here.
As a company, Nosy Crow tries to do something different for Empathy Day every year and this time we decided to celebrate by giving all staff the morning off. We recognise that the past 15 months have been challenging for all of us, and to have the gift of a few hours can be a true act of empathy.
Everyone was encouraged to take part in #EmpathyHour and spend their morning taking some time to be kind themselves or building their empathy skills, from reading a book at a local school to catching up with friends, or even a bit of litter-picking in the park! Here’s how Nosy Crow spent Empathy Day…
Managing Director, Kate Wilson, had a very productive morning: volunteering as a warden at Serpentine Swimming Club, litter-picking the park, and evening doing a bit of weeding at the lake! Later, she went on to donate some blood at the donar centre near Oxford Street: “Empathy Day was the prompt for organising this: it’s been a shameful number of years since I gave blood. I bumped into Rachel Kellehar while I was there.”
Head of Sales and Marketing, Catherine Stokes, spent her Empathy Day visiting a primary school in Banbury where she read to some of the children and gifted the school this wonderful Pip and Posy print. She then went on to share a (well-deserved) cup of coffee with a good friend in the garden: “We find it surprisingly hard to find ‘quality time’ to sit and chat with all our work and family commitments and this morning was the perfect excuse.”
Our PR team finally met in person! Coffee, cake and lots of chat followed…
Our wonderful Rights team also spent their Empathy Day together, eating some (utterly delicious) pancakes…
Senior Commissioning Editor Alice Bartosinski was supporting British Heart Foundation as they’ve recently funded research to create a test that could mean a quicker diagnosis of Acute Aortic Syndrome. You can still join in by clicking here.
Our lovely Office Manager Michelle shared the following: “My mother has cancer and has been undergoing treatment since September of last year. She is currently having regular chemotherapy sessions and, as I work full time, my brother takes her for her treatments. It just so happens that yesterday was her ‘Chemo’ day so I took her to the appointment, providing mum with ongoing support and my brother a break from hospital visits.”
Production Manager, Leila Mauger sent a care package to her sister who lives abroad and Digital Marketing Manager, Elke also headed to the post office with some cards she’d written to friends she hasn’t seen in a while.
Senior Designer Holly is on holiday but she still marked Empathy Day by taking her son to the beach for some litter picking and chatting to some locals.
Contracts Manager Nur Ben-Hamida went to a local food bank and also took some clothes to a charity shop now that they’re open again and accepting donations.
Senior Sales Executive Maddie went for an Empathy Walk and made plans to see a friend she’d lost touch with.
Also in the Sales team, Senior Sales Manager Frances went for brunch with Senior Commissioning Editor Victoria and her out-of-office even prompted one of her customer to look into Empathy Day and learn more about it.
Area Sales Manager, Alice Corrigan went to help out her family and niece, plus she built her garden furniture. We must say we’re very impressed and wish we had such comfortable-looking seats to lounge on in the sunshine.
We hope you had a wonderful Empathy Day!
