SAI360
Recognizing the deep empathy
How I’ve faced 2020’s opportunities & challenges as a Compliance Officer…
Uncertainties, anxiety, and speculative thoughts have been battering health and wellness across geographies with COVID-19, besides the sheer efforts to balance between the home and work. Burying time zone differences, extended work hours, blurred lines of professional and personal space, and a sense of preoccupation has been consistent across different factions of professionals. I was not an exception to it.
Actions that attempted to balance or protect our identity than being oneself turned to be demotivating and draining. Not being your own self has no value, what so ever it may be. Unknown fear and need for hope were occupying the mind. There was a need to view things from a different perspective. A perspective that is not about surviving the current scenario, but about the genuine interest of what I care for.
This made me feel the need to discuss, share, and deliberate on aspects I care for, and their impact on cultures, behavior, and the way we live. I wanted to see things with the ethics and compliance lens that I have lived for, not an idealistic, normative, or geopolitical lens.
As such, compliance officers, compliance consultants, and compliance & investigation counsels (compliance professionals) also go through the same uncertainties and anxiety I referred above. Job losses, budget cuts, limited resources, increasing risks, and complexities in the COVID environment were echoing in the mind of E&C professionals. They may also be going through a similar thought process I was going through.
I initiated outreach to known connections about exploring podcasts to have specific and insightful discussions on ethics and compliance. Structured conversational podcasts, 15-18 minutes long, touched upon risks, challenges, and perspectives in the current environment on various topics that affected ethics & compliance. I did podcasts with professionals across the globe! Invariably, these podcasts covered aspects of culture, compliance, controls, and the underlying behavior that drives these actions.
These professionals' thoughts exhibited the impact of deviation from ethics or non-compliance to the economy, businesses, and people's livelihood. Hearing these diverse perspectives and exchanging ideas with professionals worldwide helped in grasping the hope that resonated with the voices on the podcast. It also helped calm me down to accept uncertainties and evolve with them, rather than searching for answers in a vicious loop.
It helped me recognize the deep empathy compliance professionals had for fellow professionals and the community. In essence, recording podcasts and having insightful discussions helped me break out of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. Ethics & compliance got a life view; empathy spoke louder, and people worldwide became new family and friends.
More Compliance Officer Day Stories of 2020. Want to share your story? Start here.
