Today was a stressful day. Monday is always stressful in my full time job.
At the moment, I work a substantive role in the NHS. We are classed as frontline, although to those working in the private sector, frontline evokes images of paramedics covered in goodness-knows-what, on their knees, massaging a mans heart with his (or her, or their) bare hands, with the outside of a biro as an emergency tracheotomy. The man wakes up, the bystanders go wild, the paramedic dusts off their hands and walks into the sunset…
In reality, frontline for me is a lot less physically messy. I am in management for an NHS inbound, urgent call centre. Two guesses what three numbers you dial to get through to us…
During current Covid times, it’s flipping hard, and often thankless. But I’m not here for a virtual pat on the back.
Today was just one of those days. People weren’t in the best moods, work was building up, and my list was getting bigger and bigger. I’d been off work for a few weeks and was feeling a little overwhelmed.
I was staring into space for a moment to reset my brain, (I was feeling a bit sorry for myself). I was doing some breathing exercises quietly to myself, when a colleague of mine stepped in front of my line of vision.
I won’t mention her by name, but she is beautiful, and has the biggest heart. That is all I need to say.
She placed a chocolate bar on my desk, told me I looked like I needed it, and that was it. I smiled; It was honestly the nicest thing someone’s done for me in a while… the simplest of things made such an impact in that moment.
I’m usually a giver and don’t like feeling in debt, so in case you’re wondering, I returned the favour with a couple of my favourite tea bags.
Moral of this short little story – be kind. You never know how much of a positive impact you can have on someone’s day. And to finish, a quote…
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is wasted – Aesop.
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