{"id":76605,"date":"2022-02-16T14:51:22","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T19:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=76605"},"modified":"2022-02-17T08:57:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T13:57:13","slug":"rak-day-2022-brock-vp-encourages-employees-to-be-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2022\/02\/rak-day-2022-brock-vp-encourages-employees-to-be-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"RAK Day 2022: Brock VP encourages employees to be kind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Acts of kindness can be as simple as buying someone a coffee, smiling at a stranger or offering to help with a task.<\/p>\n<p>With Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Day taking place Thursday, Feb. 17, Brock employees are reminded to consider participating in a <a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/12\/brock-employees-encouraged-to-participate-in-year-long-kindness-initiative\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">year-long journey to make kindness the norm<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative was created by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and centres around a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.randomactsofkindness.org\/work\/calendars\/2022\/2022_RAK_kindness_at_work_calendar.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">monthly calendar<\/a> with daily suggestions of kindness, compassion and self-care. Brock staff, faculty and librarians can use the suggestions or come up with their own acts of kindness to help create a caring and considerate working environment.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Chan, Brock\u2019s Vice-President, Administration, encourages employees to be kind on RAK Day and every day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrock is known for its caring community, so an initiative focused on a virtue many of our faculty, staff and librarians already regularly demonstrate should be easy to embrace,\u201d Chan says. \u201cKindness is one of the simplest, yet most important things we can do for ourselves and for each other. If we all take a few minutes out of our days to purposefully and thoughtfully show kindness, we will all be happier for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ct8GW2SENUs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Kindness has been shown to improve mental health and well-being. It increases satisfaction and happiness, and reduces stress and anxiety. Kindness is also considered an interpersonal skill that can help strengthen relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrating others\u2019 successes, offering a helping hand, sharing words of appreciation, being friendly and considerate, and taking care of oneself are all examples of kindness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKindness can truly make a positive difference,\u201d says Chan. \u201cRecipients of kindness are often inspired to pay it forward and act kindly towards another person. How wonderful it would be to have the entire University community spread kindness at Brock and beyond to our friends, family and neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each month of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.randomactsofkindness.org\/work\/calendars\/2022\/2022_RAK_kindness_at_work_calendar.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">workplace kindness calendar<\/a> focuses on a theme, such as reflection, human connection and inclusiveness. With RAK Week from Feb. 13 to 19 and RAK Day on Feb. 17, the theme for the February calendar is \u2018kindness.\u2019 Examples of daily suggestions in February include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Schedule time to reconnect with a colleague.<\/li>\n<li>Share favourite books with others.<\/li>\n<li>Write a positive LinkedIn review for a co-worker.<\/li>\n<li>Post inspirational notes in public for others to find.<\/li>\n<li>Take time to oneself when feeling overwhelmed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Chan suggests University departments include the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.randomactsofkindness.org\/work\/calendars\/2022\/2022_RAK_kindness_at_work_calendar.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">workplace kindness calendar<\/a> as a part of their team meetings, manager updates and newsletters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncorporate the kindness calendar into daily work life so kindness becomes a topic people expect to talk about and act on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the actions suggested on each day of the calendar, several kindness resources and tips can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.randomactsofkindness.org\/get-inspired\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Random Acts of Kindness Foundation website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are also several initiatives taking place across campus for Random Acts of Kindness Day. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brock Interim President Lynn Wells and staff members with Student Life and Success will be handing out items, such as food vouchers donated by Brock Dining Services. They will be passing through many areas of Brock\u2019s main campus, including busy areas such as the Rankin Family Pavilion lobby, Thistle Hall and Market Hall.<\/li>\n<li>Student Life and Success is hosting a thank-you card station in Market Hall. Students and employees can write notes of appreciation or encouragement and hand them out to people within the Brock community. Ideas include thanking friends, colleagues and classmates; custodial, maintenance and cafeteria staff; student advisors; instructors; and others who have made a positive impact.<\/li>\n<li>Alumni Relations is asking members of the Brock community, including students, graduates and employees, to share messages of kindness with staff and faculty who made a difference in their lives at Brock via <a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/alumni\/faculty-staff-appreciation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an online form on the Alumni Relations website<\/a>. Alumni Relations staff will then email the messages to recipients.<\/li>\n<li>The Dons of Activities in residences are hosting a candy gram program that asked students to submit candy gram submissions for other students in residences. More than 600 submissions were received and will be delivered by student staff.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information on Random Acts of Kindness Day, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.randomactsofkindness.org\/get-inspired\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Random Acts of Kindness Foundation website<\/a>. Questions regarding Brock\u2019s involvement with the year-long initiative to make kindness the norm can be directed to Health Management and Wellness at <a href=\"mailto:employeehealth@brocku.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">employeehealth@brocku.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-76607 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/February-2022-workplace-kindness-calendar-1050x1021.jpg\" alt=\"Random Acts of Kindness Foundation\u2019s Workplace Kindness Calendar. The theme for February 2022 is \u2018kindness.\u2019\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1021\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acts of kindness can be as simple as buying someone a coffee, smiling at a stranger or offering to help with a task.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":76606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,7,1,4],"tags":[3333,3574,283,2203,133,476,8572,2861,101,9909,11224,3557,9075],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76605"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76617,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76605\/revisions\/76617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}