I worked a job where I had to tell people they’d lost all their data on a near-daily basis. I gradually became very clinical about it, completely without empathy. Not rude, just: “this is what happened and here’s what we can do to fix it.”

It took witnessing a surprising act of genuine compassion from a coworker to spark it in me again. I later thanked him and told me he’d saved me; I don’t think he fully understood the magnitude of the change he inspired.