masterMind
Additional LifeSkills Lesson
Unit 5  Work & Career: developing empathy
Objective: to provide further practice of developing
empathy, this time within the area of Work & Career.
The three-step strategy for developing this soft skill is:
Step 1: Think of an experience that you have had
that is similar to another person’s situation.
(Ex. A, Ex. B)
Step 2: Compare the difficulty of your experience
with that of another person. (Ex. C)
Step 3: Imagine how you would feel in the other
person’s situation. (Ex. C)
You may decide to highlight this strategy at the
beginning of the lesson, and to conduct a short
discussion to check that the students understand the
skill and why it is useful. However, if you prefer to
teach this lesson without discussing the underlying soft
skill, this is also possible. The lesson is designed to be
engaging and successful either way.
For more information about teaching life skills and ideas
for highlighting the soft skill, please refer to p. xii and
pp. T64–T65 of the Teacher’s Book.
MATERIALS:
• board and markers
Lead-in
Write the word empathy on the board. Ask the students
if they can recall what it means. Encourage the class to
work together to provide a definition, and write it on the
board, e.g., Empathy is the ability to understand how
someone feels because you can imagine what it’s like
to be them. Remind the students that, in the Student’s
Book, they looked at developing empathy within the
context of Self & Society. Explain that, in this lesson,
they will be looking at developing empathy within the
workplace. Ask the students to think of a time when
they had a problem at work or in their career. Invite
volunteers to share their problem with the rest of the
class. If other students have had similar problems at
work, encourage them to say how they imagine the
original student felt, based on their own experience.
© Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015. This page may be photocopied and used within the class.
LEVEL 1
A
• Put the students in pairs and give them about
five minutes to brainstorm reasons why it might
be important to show empathy in the workplace.
Then elicit some ideas and discuss them as a class.
Possible answers
It promotes effective understanding.
It aids communication.
It improves working relationships.
It helps workers to avoid conflict.
• Erase the board and write the following situation:
One of your co-workers, Janice, has been very
difficult to work with recently. She often arrives
late, although she always stays to work late, and
she seems stressed and is irritable with everyone.
She never has time to answer any questions or
help anyone out. She often misses important
team meetings.
• Read the situation aloud and put the students in
pairs to discuss how they would feel about working
with someone who was behaving like this. Elicit
some ideas briefly, e.g., I’d feel annoyed because
it would affect the atmosphere in the office.
B
• Now explain that the head of department has
noticed some friction within the team and has
written an email to explain some of Janice’s
problems. Dictate the following email to the
students (twice if necessary) and ask them to make
a note of the problems:
Dear team
I felt it was a good idea to let you know why Janice
has been having some problems recently. She has
been asked to cover someone else’s work while
they are off sick, and so is effectively doing two
jobs. In order to do this, she has had to miss some
meetings. She has also informed me that she is
having some problems with her bus connection
and it is taking her over two hours to get into work.
As she is having to work late, this means she is not
getting home until nearly midnight and, having
two young children, as you can imagine, this is very
stressful for her.
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masterMind LEVEL 1

• Elicit Janice’s main problems (she’s having to do two

jobs, is having transport problems, and is getting
Reflect
home very late). • Write the following question on the board:
• Erase the board and write the following questions: In what types of jobs is it especially important to
Think of a time when you had to do more work than show empathy?
you could cope with. How did you feel? What did • Give the students time to reflect and then elicit
you do? ideas as a class, e.g., doctor, nurse, counselor or
Think of a time when you were late because of other “caring” profession, manager, teacher, sales
transport problems. How did you feel? What did representative.
you do?
• Give the students a few minutes to think of their EXTRA: HOMEWORK
answers to these questions, and then ask them to
Ask the class to write a short article entitled Showing
discuss them in pairs. Elicit some thoughts as a class.
empathy: tips for workers. Have them share their
C articles in the next class. If you wish, have them
• Ask the students to stay in their pairs. Erase the work in groups to choose their best tips and make
board and write the following: a leaflet.
Now compare the experiences you discussed in
Ex. B with Janice’s situation. Is Janice’s situation
more stressful/difficult? Why?
Imagine yourself in Janice’s position. How would
you feel?
Has your view of Janice changed from your initial
thoughts in Ex. A? How?
• Give the students a few minutes to think about these
questions individually. Then ask them to discuss
them in pairs.
• Have a class feedback session and elicit what we
can do to empathize with co-workers, e.g., find out
about their job and responsibilities, listen actively to
them, show compassion if they are having personal
problems, etc.

ALTERNATIVE
Have the students role-play a meeting between
Janice and one of the co-workers following the
email. Encourage them to think about what they
could say to help Janice and to show empathy.

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