If anything, I have learned, they may need protecting most.

I have tried, since, to build that understanding into how I run my life and my home.

It is not enough to be a decent employer in the ordinary sense, to pay fairly and speak kindly; that is the floor, not the ceiling.

What I failed at was not decency but attention, the harder and less flattering work of actually noticing when someone in my care was being ground down, and of building a household in which they would feel safe bringing me the truth before it became a crisis.

Kindness that does not pay attention is not much use to the person being harmed under its nose.