At the risk of sounding cynical, emphathy has a selfish side to it. Leaders and managers find it easier to have emphathy for a good employee going through tough personal times than a bad employee going through the same thing.

They hope the good employee will recover and get back to doing good work.

But in general, I agree about the importance of emphathy. I found that employees care more about their jobs and their companies when they understood that had empathetic bosses. They also were more productive.