Awareness in the workplace

People of all ages at all points in their life will have a period of depression, loneliness, just an issue. As I said, it could be your dog's death and the dog was the reason you got out of bed. You lived alone. You go home. The dog's there to make a fuss of you when you walk in. Or your car has crashed, or somebody has hit it. You had your car stolen. There are all sorts of things that give people issues. And I think employees... We are not just saying the boss. Everybody should be aware that if somebody comes in and they're not the person they were when they went home or they are slightly different, just have enough confidence, and enough about yourself, so you wanna say, "Hello, Bill. Sheila, how are you? You seem a bit down today. Do you want to talk about anything?" It could be they turn round and say, "No, mind your own business." But it could be they are just looking for somebody to say, "Yeah, my dog is poorly. I have had to take it to the vet." "Okay, well, I can't cure your dog. Tell me, what is the dog in for? You walked in. Where is your pride and joy?" "Oh, somebody has nicked it."

Show we care. We have not got to wear a badge that's gonna say, "I'm a carer." You've just got to be a human being and just... It could be you one day that comes in down in the dumps and you would expect somebody to at least turnaround and say "Oh, you're not the life and the soul of the party today. What's the matter? What's knocked your dog off?" And then you can then return back to them a communication and an awareness. That's all you've got to do. Just know your people. The MD of the company doesn't know all his 50,000 employees, but he'll know the six line managers. The line managers will know the foreman. The foreman will know the charge M's, the charge M's will know the people. You're workmates. Just work together.