After WeWork Paulista opened in S\u00e3o Paulo last year, community manager N\u00e1taly Bonato started to get some troubling complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we opened in July, we had 40 member complaints about cleaning,\u201d Bonato says. \u201cThe cleaning schedule wasn\u2019t being followed. Something really wrong was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bonato made a report to the team, but the problem only worsened. She decided that pushing the team more wouldn\u2019t help. She needed to listen. So she created a safe space within the office to set the scene for open conversation. Initially everyone held back, but eventually they got to the heart of the issue: Half the cleaning staff couldn’t read or write.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been really easy to say, \u2018Since you can\u2019t read and write, we have to replace you,\u2019\u201d Bonato says. \u201cBut I saw my dad in them. He has an education only to the fourth grade. He can read and write, but he has no proper education. I didn\u2019t want them to feel that they were being dismissed because they hadn\u2019t had opportunities in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
S\u00e3o Paulo is a city of 12 million, where many immigrants from northeast Brazil come to seek new opportunities. While the national literacy rate is above 90 percent, not everyone has the same educational opportunities.<\/p>\n
Bonato saw two options: Let them go or teach them. \u201cGiving up without trying is not an option,\u201d she says. Reaching out to the WeWork Member Network, Bonato found a kindergarten teacher experienced in early reading and writing skills who was willing to volunteer with these adults twice a week for 90 minutes. Bringing this opportunity to the staff members, Bonato says, all four enthusiastically signed on.<\/p>\n
Over the next few months, the students saw a new world opening up. One woman in the class realized reported she could now read the name of her bus and would practice her new skills as she read signs along the street. As the four pupils progressed, the group made a trip to a local bookstore to read their first book, The Little Prince<\/em> (O Pequeno Pr\u00edncipe<\/em>).<\/p>\n After five months of classes, they could read, write their names, and sign contracts. The complaints went from 40 to virtually zero. \u201cI had no issues about cleaning ever again,\u201d she says. \u201cThey now feel more confident talking to members. Now everybody knows them. They feel confident when someone is talking to them and answer as equals.\u201d<\/p>\n The group held a special graduation ceremony, celebrating how far they\u2019d had come as well as their new chapters taking formal literacy classes at a nearby school. During the ceremony, the oldest student of the class, Irene, took mic and declared, \u201cToday I am 68 years old, and finally I can write my name.\u201d It was an emotional moment for the room of friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n The story also resonated with people across Brazil, as 20-plus news outlets picked up the story, including the leading newspaper, Correio Braziliense<\/em>.<\/p>\n Bonato says her approach of listening first is something anyone can replicate, with the right mind-set.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the things I see happening with people with less privilege in life is they are invisible,\u201d she says. \u201cNobody talks to them, nobody knows that their needs are. My advice is stop and listen to them. Then they can feel like they are human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S\u00e3o Paulo community manager learned some staffers couldn\u2019t read and write, so she did something about it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":902,"featured_media":3000001374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-employee-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n