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Stop. Using. These. Two. Words.
Flexibility and Balance? Give me a break
🥱 Blah blah ‘flexible’ work, work/life ‘balance’, blah blah blah.
These two words have become utterly overused and totally meaningless. I’m just so over them.
Time to get tough with your board!
❌ 74% of managers says they don’t have the influence or resources to make change for employees (Microsoft Work Trend Index)
😒 54% of managers believe that leadership is out of touch with employees.
Stop using Gen Z as an excuse!
The latest Microsoft Work Trend Index (31,000 people in 31 markets) has landed, and shows that 51% of organisations plan to return to full-time office hours by the end of the year. At the same time, a majority of employees say they prefer to mix work between the office and home. Perhaps this fundamental disagreement is why 41% of employees say they are considering leaving their jobs…
But does that include young people?
The power of work you love
Global researcher Marcus Buckingham has a new book called Love + Work (out 5 April, 2022). In it he rages against our education systems for standardising and testing our children, without digging deeply into their uniqueness and the things that they really love.
Hybrid hot buttons
Some of us are embracing hybrid—and each other—as we return to offices more regularly and at scale.
But the skirmishes have started. 🤺
The worst of the worst
This week has been it.
Ukraine has broken our hearts—while inspiring us with the kind of bravery and leadership that makes us weep.
Bosses: Gods, Monsters, and Mortals
One of the best compliments I was ever given was from someone who thought I was a pain in the arse.
He was the FD at a big agency who said to my then-boss, ‘You can say what you like about Christine Armstrong’—clearly he did—‘but you can’t deny that people really like working for her.’
Never be boring!
60 seconds of tips to light up your audience when you present research, data, thought leadership, or slides.
Featuring a badger coat.
Three day weekends & spiritualism anyone?
One of the benefits of working for myself is that I can design working days that ensure I Get Shit Done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Which, for me, means working short but intense days with deep thinking tasks early in the morning. I share this as I reflect on author Emma Gannon’s recent tweet…
“Women have won the pandemic”
Saturday at 3pm was when my world turned dark. Child two was sent home from a party vomiting. By 4pm, the youngest was at it. By 6pm it was me and then our oldest was sent home from her sleepover. It was REVOLTING.
Toxic leaders, Amazon rumours & my mistakes
Ten years ago I resigned from a workplace that made me anxious and miserable.
From the first Monday morning meeting on my first day, I knew it wasn’t for me. The most senior person in the room belittled a dynamo of a woman I’d already clocked was a radiator of great energy and insight.
Great hybrid meetings? Think ‘MORE’
If you’d asked Kirsty Lewis (Founder of the School of Facilitation) a year ago if hybrid workshops could be productive, she’d have told you not to bother. Do them online or offline—not both.
Death of hybrid: greatly exaggerated?
Before Christmas I spoke at a finance event, and in the front row was a Charles Dance lookalike who seemed quite cross. And the more I spoke, the crosser he became.
2022. Buckle up with a fighter pilot.
Happy New Year!!
We all need a boost this week to I went to visit Mandy Hickson, former RAF fighter pilot turned motivational speaker, to get her advice on how to soar into 2022. She was full of laughter, despite being unable to book into her regular spinning classes, due to all the New Years Resolutioners turning up to hyperventilate (aka me).
Finding JOY in a Slush Puppie
Last week I said I’d share our research into ways of making hybrid work within organisations, but with the week we’ve had—Omicrom tidal waves, WFH guidance, canned Christmas parties, and Mr Big and his Peloton—let’s save the worky stuff to January and focus on JOY.
Hybrid: how bosses are struggling
Obviously Boris WOULD announce a work from home order as soon as I get these findings, but I’m just ignoring his dead cat bounce for the moment.
2/3 of your colleagues don’t trust you
This morning my husband said sorry to me… for something that happened ten years ago, inspired by a conversation we were having.
HYBRID: 9 practical solutions
The research on how to hybridise—at scale—isn’t out yet. So, here’s what I’ve gathered from my interviews and reading.
(When the research comes in, I’ll update you!)
Disability and ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’
Kate Nash OBE, creator of Purple Space, shared her thoughts with me on why disability so often takes a back seat to gender, ethnicity, and sexuality in our discussions at work. Particularly as those with disabilities make up about 15% of the workforce, even if not all of them are obvious to others.
An idiot’s guide to the Metaverse and Web3
Jeez. Mark Zuckerberg makes a weird film about the Metaverse and suddenly the damned word is everywhere! As is the term Web3 which may—or may not—be the same thing. I’m having flashbacks to the early 2000s when my techie housemate Pete told me to invest in social networks… and I told him not to be boring 🤦🏻♀️.