A reflection on care work, simplicity, and what changes when human presence comes first. In 2023, I stepped across the threshold of two Danish care homes for elderly residents with no clear idea of what awaited me.
What I did know was this:
The elderly care sector is under pressure. Staff shortages, sickness absence, stress and burnout are widespread. And SOSU care workers – among the lowest formally educated groups in the Danish labour market – carry some of society’s heaviest emotional responsibilities.
What I didn’t know was how profoundly simple human principles, applied with care and respect, could shift something essential in everyday working life.
88% believed change was possible
Across two care homes I conducted coaching-based development programmes with 110 care workers.
After observations, conversations, workshops, exercises and reflection days, the programme concluded with a simple question:
Do you believe you can create a better and more joyful working life using the principles in this book?
88% answered yes.
On a scale from 1 to 10, the programme was rated 7 on average – a result that genuinely surprised me. Skepticism is natural when someone enters your workplace from the outside, offering reflections on behaviour, communication and mindset. And yet, something resonated.
From theory to reality on the care floor
I followed shifts from early morning to late evening. I witnessed the pace, the unpredictability, the emotional labour.
An elderly man proudly pointed to the golf clubs beside his bed and asked me how long he would be staying there. A colleague changed his diaper while he wondered aloud when he would see his partner again.
Evenings meant gathering residents for dinner, serving meals, helping some eat, escorting them back to their rooms and settling them into bed – all while phones rang, colleagues called in sick, and unexpected emotions surfaced.
This is not romantic work. It is demanding, intimate, and often invisible. And too often, the people doing it feel unseen.
The smile as a serious tool
One of the core insights from these programmes was not about productivity or performance metrics. It was about meaning.
Through simple coaching exercises, staff were invited to speak more openly with each other about the small, moving moments in their daily work – moments that usually disappear in the rush.
“It was good to talk about the touching moments we experience with residents and their families. We forget to talk about that,” one participant told me.
When the power of the smile cut through the daily chaos, faces quite literally lit up. A smile, in this context, is not politeness. It is presence. Recognition. Humanity.
As the American communication expert Les Giblin once said:
“If you’re not using your smile, you’re like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no checkbook.”
Seven simple life rules – not a manual
The work draws on seven simple life principles, developed not as rigid rules, but as tools people can adapt:
- You become what you say.
- Challenge negative thinking.
- Make eye contact.
- Change your mood in two minutes.
- Put heart and body into your calendar.
- Avoid digital traps.
- Stop at the red light.
Each principle combines:
- Practical tools you can use tomorrow
- Insights from psychology and neuroscience
- Real workplace cases
- Reflective questions
There is no manual. No KPI dashboard. You already know whether something works – if you stop and listen.
Why simple works (when complex fails)
Research shows that our brains often distrust simplicity. We assume meaningful change must be complicated. Yet scientists speak of a “simplicity bias” – the idea that simple solutions are not only sufficient, but often more likely and more sustainable.
In an increasingly complex world, simplicity becomes a form of courage.
East meets West – on the care floor
My own search for a good working life has taken me from Tony Robbins’ Date With Destiny in Florida to the Dalai Lama’s temple in the Himalayas.
What surprised me most was this: The wisdom from East and West only truly came alive when translated into everyday working reality – on care floors, in team rooms, in five-minute conversations between shifts.
That is where the smile matters. That is where work becomes life.