"When I worked in retail, I had a colleague who was always late and sometimes never showed up for her shift at all. It was very frustrating. She was friends with the manager, so not much was ever done about her tardiness, which made me even more frustrated. One evening, we were assigned to work the cash registers together and the customer flow was very slow. I took that opportunity to mention that I noticed she was late a lot and asked her if there was anything going on in her life that was causing her hardship. She told me that she was a single mom and didn't have reliable childcare or transportation. While I empathized with her, I shared the impact that her being late or not showing up for her shift was causing the rest of the team, myself included. I wanted to be a part of the solution and help her, so I offered to help research daycares in the area as well as available public transportation. I know what she was going through was difficult and it was also difficult for our team when she wasn't at work, so I wanted to help find a solution that would benefit everyone. She was able to line up both daycare and transportation and it really benefited the entire time because she was able to be at work on time and reliable for her shifts."

"I once had a colleague who was very negative and constantly complained throughout the shift. It was really taking a toll on me, to the point where I didn't even want to work the same shift as this person. I felt like I had a good working relationship with this colleague, so I asked him to grab coffee one day. I asked him how things were going both at home and work, and he shared a lot of frustrations and problems he was having. I was gentle but honest with him about how he was perceived at work and the impact he was having on the team. I let him know that as a senior employee on the team, others looked up to him and often followed his lead and attitude. I wasn't sure how he would take it, but I felt like I had to have an open conversation with him and give him an opportunity to self-reflect and make changes before going to my manager. I feel like he appreciated me coming to him one-off and having the courage to have the tough conversation, and by talking about it openly and in a non-confrontation way, he was receptive. He committed to leaving his personal life at home and really made strides in improving his attitude in the workplace and it greatly impacted the morale of the rest of the team."