Check-ins helped me be more open to being asked if I was okay
By Marga Ancheta
I think it’s a common experience for people to have a hard time expressing themselves freely around people they just met, even more so in a work environment. I thought that I would just talk about work things with work people. That changed when I learned about the concept of check-ins.
With Positive Workplaces being my first internship and glimpse into the working world, I was scared that I needed to make a good impression, so I was pretty much an uptight person heading into my interview. It surprised me when my interviewer Chloe asked me: “What are you grateful for today?”. How could I answer that question? Should I place my best foot forward, or should I answer that question honestly? More importantly, I wondered why my interviewer would ask such a question. She didn’t know me, but here she was asking a question that I wouldn’t really answer if an acquaintance asked me, or even my family. Yet, here she was asking me that on the first day that I met her.
Getting accepted into the Culture Changers internship program, I started preparing myself for questions like that, but I realized check-ins aren’t always deep questions that take time to ponder upon. There was a time where Chi, one of the core members of Positive Workplaces, asked us to check in using a meme with various pictures of dogs. It was so simple, but at the same time it said a lot about how we were all doing. I would listen to everyone go one by one and talk about how they felt like this dog meme and why. It was fun and interesting because who would have thought people could say a lot about how they are with just a simple prompt?
I guess that’s what check-ins are meant to do. They help us talk more about ourselves in a situation where we would probably not. It gives us the avenue to show who we are, and for the people we work with to see who we are outside of work. It helps us be more vulnerable about what we’re going through. Before being exposed to check-ins, I wouldn’t really know what to answer when people would ask how I’m doing. I was scared to bare my true feelings and instead, I would usually answer with “I’m okay” because it’s enough for people to not probe into what I’m going through. It was the security blanket I had to make sure people thought they could count on me to get the job done. But with every check-in prompt we had, I slowly started to be more open to my co-interns and to my supervisors about how I felt and what I was going through. In turn, I got to learn more about the people I was working with: their interests, the things that make their day and everything in between. I’m thankful for check-ins because I get to share a bit about myself, my personality and my experiences and people are willing to listen. I’m grateful for the new experiences I share with the people I work with. Check-ins helped me become closer to people I thought I wouldn’t get to even talk casually with. They helped me admit to myself and to others that at times things weren’t going well. It may not be a direct answer, but at least it’s a start towards being more open about what I feel and what I show others.
Want to learn more about Check-ins and how to incorporate them into your workplace? Watch our free webinar on the topic here. Hopefully, this can give you the extra push to allow yourself to be open with other people.
