Feeling Seen

A few days ago we had training pertaining to equality vs equity and what that should look like in our work place. I was holding out on talking during the whole meeting (they called us out by name because of this) and the moderator asked what changes we can make it the workplace to be more equitable.

I thought about a few days before the training where one of the admin assistants was in a meeting and you could hear her getting agitated. I could feel it! There are no offices for assistants, we all sit on “Exec row.” People walk around, use the printers, talk and laugh. General office noises + trying to have a meeting without headphones = a disaster. She was at a stress level I had never seen her at so I quickly handed her my headset. After her meeting she told me how she had ADHD and was overstimulated.

That’s how I got my one mandatory answer: to be more equitable, since all disabilities aren’t physical we should have a quiet room people can go to for meetings or to just gather themselves. I tried not to put too much of her info out there but she agreed with me and revealed to the group that she had ADHD.

After the training she came up to me and thanked me for making her feel seen. No one had ever thanked me in that way before. It’s so easy to feel unseen in this world, like no one gets you, they don’t understand you. You could speak up for yourself, advocate for yourself and sometimes you still feel unheard. Sometimes all it takes is one person to see you, to bring you up and make sure other people see you too.

I feel I’ve spent a lot of time on myself, healing and growing as a person. I want to make people feel as seen as possible and uplift them to the best of my ability.