Human Rocks

  Recently, I've asked a wise lady and my role model about how to maintain friendships with girlfriends who are mothers. When you are childless and all of your close friends are mothers, and your siblings are parents, too. You sincerely love them, and you're happy for them from the bottom of your heart. But you have a battle going inside of you: you love to hear about their children, since they are such a great part of their lives, but at the same time, it's often hard for you. You have a lot in common that you can talk about, but you feel that if your friends are not allowed to talk about their kids, so as not to hurt you, your communication is not as rich, profound and sincere as it used to be. Here's what she said: "Intimacy and honesty are the same thing". When you start feeling it hard to be honest with your friends, you start losing intimacy. So, gradually you might begin to "ghost" such friendship: stop answering the calls, avoid meetings, and...

There is a lot of talk these days about the changes that the pandemic has brought to our lives, habits, lifestyle, and work. While we sympathize with parents who work from home in the chaos of the “child management” and household duties, we often forget about the group of people that is hardly heard and almost invisible – our childless colleagues, who are sometimes also single. For them it’s just as hard, if not harder, to survive the social distancing and smart working, due to the profound feeling of loneliness. So, can we even compare these temporary challenges of parents to the existential struggles of the childless? Childless people, as well as singles, often have to fight the stereotype of their life being easier because they don't have children to look after. In some ways it may be true but childless people themselves, especially those not by choice, don't see it this way. Living alone has its own difficulties, they are just different in nature from those in the famil...

LINK per seguire la DIRETTA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw5NFdaKJdM

D iversity appreciation, engagement and inclusion, as well as granting equal employment opportunities   that almost all companies claim to promote  nowadays  are not only about accepting  everybody’s  right to their religious beliefs, political views, cultural traditions and sexual preferences, but it’s also about respecting one’s personal life choices and circumstances, including those related to procreating, and consequently – one’s social status as a parent or a non-parent.  A non-parent of both categories: no kids by choice (“childfree”) and no kinds not by choice but by circumstance (“childless”).   We often speak about maternity in the workplace and the discriminational attitude (so called “motherhood penalty”) that pregnant women and mothers can experience at work. At the same time we almost never speak about the situation childless colleagues might find themselves in, nor we even consider their state of mind and a myriad of issues – personal an...

Yet another lockdown. You are alone. You've been home for days. You go out to take a breath of fresh air and buy some food. But more than anything else, you go out to see people not on your PC screen, and to talk to someone, if you're lucky. You're working hard to keep away the destructive and painful thoughts about your fate that brought you here, in the silent world of childless people.   - While your colleagues in Zoom complain about their kids they can't properly handle. - While your colleagues’ children are there playing in the background of the PC screen during online meetings. - While the children of all the  neighbours  are on home schooling, and you can hear them screaming and laughing, - You are always there: you're one in five women without children.   Isolation makes you live over your story of loneliness and grief. As often happens, it is a really painful story that you live with every day and that you cannot share with anyone, or can  just  sh...

Last week, I read an article about the reality of smart working. There was an expert opinion in it, saying that while at meetings, we should speak about our children because it "accelerates empathy".  O M G ! I immediately thought about a woman desperately wishing to become a mother, who has just had another failed IVF cycle sacrificing her health and investing everything she had. I thought about a childless elder woman whose friends one by one start to become grandmothers. I though about a young girl who has already experienced several miscarriages and is now afraid of trying again. How incredibly insensible and selfish it is to talk to your colleagues about your kids! For God's sake, stop doing it.

What comes to your mind when you hear "Human Rocks"? Let's play word associations: A human who "rocks".  Someone who is strong as a rock.  A rock to climb. Or a huge rock made of smaller stones forming a perfect balance: just pull out one - and the rock is transformed, or even crushes. Or maybe you can remember a Japanese proverb, saying "The pebble in the brook secretly believes itself to be a precious stone". In short, that's what Human Rocks is all about. It's about people . Cherishing them, caring about them, being gentle and compassionate. It's about achievement . Putting a goal, being persistent, and learning as you go. It's about attitude . Being positive, grateful, and confident. Are your HR policies guided by these concepts? Do they reflect the needs and challenged of all groups of your employees? If the answer is "yes", you are probably one of those companies that can set an example of inclusion, and enjoy the loyalt...