(Day 8) 19th March - On-action Empathy Reflection at Work

 My role as a Case Manager (CM) for Universal Credit (UC) involves interacting with my claimants, managing their details/payments and ensuring an stress-free journey whilst on UC. I have around 700 claimants who are my own, which in time you do get to know the ones who need more support and assistance. However, sometimes I think it's easy to forget the importance of the role, as you do come across many rude and problematic claimants as well as fraudulent ones. When reflecting that my empathy needs improvement, I felt a good practice is to take more time at work to practice being empathetic rather than sympathetic. Remind myself that each individual case is different. Today, I exercised my empathy. 



The Universal Credit Ship is an analogy for my empathy on-action reflection. After reflection on my day, I related a successful, supporting relationship/claim as a boat. Multiple factors play a part in controlling and supporting a boats journey. As well as, uncontrollable factors which change daily and cannot always be predicted. The UC service is complex and forever changing to meet demands. There are many policies, rules and guidance I have to follow. However, these uncontrollable factors ensure there is balance with all claims and equality. Claimants may find these factors annoying which can result into back lash to their CM. This can interrupt a smooth sailing relationship.

The main body, and without this there would essentially be no ship, is COMMUNICATION. It is imperative to communicate, from a CM perspective and claimant. Aside from the fact it can impact payments - many forget to contact their CM. Today, when replying to my messages from claimants I remained empathic to their situation, how can I do the best for my claimant? We deal with a lot of non-UK people/speakers and the easy option is to write a message. Today, I thought no I wanted to ensure the claimant knows whats going on to avoid any further stress. So I took extra time to call the claimant with an interpreter too, which the claimant was extremely grateful for. This also avoided any extra confusion over messaging.  

As the CM, most of the responsibility for a smooth UC journey is my role. I control the basics (payments, details etc), I have a duty of care for the claimants and communication is key to relay anything on this. After receiving multiple journal messages from a claimant, again I decided to call her to talk about any concerns and to explain her payment. When the claimant was explaining her situation, she began to cry, this really triggered me and I instantly stepped into action mode. I did all I could, sorted out every one of her concerns and then even signposted her to mental health organisations which is expressed interest too. She was extremely grateful and I had reassured her. Empathy can go a long way. 

One big factor of support from the claimant is trust. There is an overall negative Association with the government, CM, UC etc. Many claimants are always on the defensive, they sometimes need reminding we are here to help as a civil servant. Support from/to CM from/to claimants involves trust, understanding, awareness and overall support. 

Today, I just from slowing down and exercising my empathy, going a little further and doing more than what I can shows the emotional impact people. Whilst this is just one day, I am to continue to learn empathy and slowing down to take time to be empathetic. I will continue to read more about empathy is the work place, teams and also design. As my current job role is not my planned career.

One thing I did notice today, I felt more tired / drained after a quite emotional day. Of course not all days will be like this, but it is important to note that impact someone else's emotional distress can cause. 

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