The Great Resignation

Historians will be pretty busy trying to understand what exactly happened in 2020 and 2021. 2020 was THE year the whole world stopped thanks to the pandemic, and then 2021 continued with lockdowns. When people spend more time at home and not being able to hide behind their all mighty business, they had time to do something they weren’t doing much: to think. (We are all guilty here)

To think about the priorities, to think about what they really wanted to do in life in general, especially as everything could just vanish pretty quickly. Who are the friends you would see yourself going in lockdown with? Whom did you contact? And on the professional side: Am I doing the job I enjoy doing?

For many the answer was NO! And enter the great resignation. And no, this is not just something that happened in the states, where everything is big and GREAT. No, really, it was all over the world.

Disclaimer: To be able to resign without thinking of the financial implications is quite a privilege. Still some people concluded they would rather downsize their lives and enjoy more what they had.

Anyway, back to the great resignation (and by the way I do believe this is a trend that will continue throughout 2022), the same way Londoners realized they wanted more space rather than being in the city center in a shoe box, there was also a big rethink about what people really wanted to be doing.

Flexibility

Throughout lockdown – where possible – everyone had to work from home. Companies had to make a huge shift to web based technologies to ensure everyone was online and getting the job done. Meeting room meetings moved to video calls. The office suit was replaced by a presentable shirt and comfy trousers (and slippers). And then as the world started to open up, companies started to ask everyone to be back in the office. A good example of that was JP Morgan (Forbes article here). Then you had companies like Deloitte that said employees didn’t had to work from the office (CityAM article here) – as if consultants worked from the official office anyway…. so I actually took this one with a pinch of salt.

Anyway, people realized they could work from home and enjoying flexibility such as having time to exercise, take the kids to school, sort out the laundry, while at the same time maintaining the productivity (or increasing it) and loosing that didn’t felt right.

If you have 2 good equal companies and one of them allows you flexibility and the other doesn’t, which one would you choose? It’s a no brainer really.

Flexibility is a sword that cuts both ways. If you want flexibility from your employees you have to give flexibility back. If you want to retain your key people, well I would suggest burying old fashion ways of “controlling” employees by seeing them (I wrote about it here). Also, some empathy would be good. Just because you enjoy being in the office, being in your suit doesn’t mean everyone enjoys the same, or even if some enjoy, maybe they can’t afford it (enter the world of childcare or carers in general).

There’s a life outside

For a lot of people it was also about: do I even enjoy my job at all? A lot of people developed hobbies – or enhanced them – and realized they could try to make a living out of it. Even if that meant less money, it meant being in control of when to work and where to work from. (And here’s me wishing I had hobbies that made any money!)

Then for sure, the family side. For a lot of people I know, it was really important to finally be able to take the kids to school / or collect them. To have lunch at the table in your kitchen. To be able to stop working and enjoy family time or even to have time to finally exercise on a daily basis (which for me was only achieved during Lockdown 1.0). Before Covid, I rarely managed to take my daughter to / from the nursery, but now I am doing it on a daily basis. It means the world to me and her. Without working from home and with the long commute would be next to impossible to do the same.

Whatever rocks your boat, I’m pretty sure you’ve found something you enjoy that you could do more of.

So what does it mean for companies?

For companies in the long term, will be quite binary: do they offer flexible working? Yes or No:

• If you want to retain your employees as opposed to having to hire more expensive ones without the same knowledge, offer flexibility (in its true form)
• If you want to attract the highest talent (e.g. new grads or experience hires alike), you have to office flexibility. If you don’t, I’m pretty sure your competitors will. There’s more to life than just the income.

What does flexible working even mean?

• Flexibility of hours – In its highest form it means employees should be working towards goals they need to meet. It’s up to them how they meet them. In a lighter version just means there’s some flexibility of when to start the work, when to stop and which breaks can be done in between.
• Flexibility of location – (this discounts any tax implications of working outside of the country). If there are critical meetings which demand an in person meeting, by all means get together in the office, but for everything else it’s up to the employee of where he’ll get the job done. From the comfort of his bed, to a hipster coffee shop, take your pick (note, certain roles might now allow for coffee shop meetings due to the confidentiality of the information being shared in conference calls). It still looks nice to work from a coffee shop though, although expensive in the long run.
• Flexibility of roles – here I should say, embracing a skill based approach – in essence it means allowing employees to move horizontally and take on completely different roles where they could still use the same core skillset. (I wrote about the importance of skills from an employee point of view here). How is this even related to the mass resignation? Well it is. Many employees might feel they are not developing or are not given opportunities for development. Allowing (and even encouraging) changing roles would benefit one’s development as well as the company itself by utilizing diversity across departments (even if they seem unrelated). An HR guy, an IT guy and a procurement guy walk into a bar…. this could be a good conversation by the way.

What are the benefits for the company to embrace flexibility

As we have seen with the pandemic, people are working more from home, not less. If you give flexibility, you get flexibility back.

One thing that always puzzled me, was why companies never consider existing clients? Yap, I mean clients, like they always have massive discounts for new clients and totally forget the existing clients? This encourages clients to shift to also benefit from a new client discount. Same is valid regarding employees. Companies don’t always make the effort to keep the best people. They think just some random salary increases will do the trick and given the employees are there they will always stay or if they leave it’s because they are not worthy. No joke, I felt this in the past myself and this was also the view of the CEO of a company I worked for many moons ago.

What is the cost of recruiting? I have also been in companies that would give me a fee for bringing candidates from my network of contacts (as it’s cheaper than paying a recruiting agency). So how about companies make the effort of keeping what they already have?

And the cost of training someone new? I don’t enjoy spending time doing KT. Nop, not a bit. The existing team rarely has the time to properly train new hires, which means eventually some of the valuable information just vanishes. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to allow people to move roles within the existing organization or allow them some flexibility? You might not even have to spend a penny on it!

Return to the office

I’m pretty sure most of you have seen this viral video already, but I’ll share it anyway

Hands up if you feel like this dad! I certainly do!

Why does it feel so hard to be back into the office?

We got used to work from home and work with comfortable clothing. While we are social creatures, we do adapt pretty easily, so we’ve managed to adapt to be able to hide ourselves. Even with the meeting here and there on camera, we didn’t had to pretend to be spot on at all times. And this could be all the way from working on our comfortable clothing (dear PJ’s I’m looking at you), to not having to hide the tired look from your face.

I know there’s a lot of people out there who would love to be back into the office and to the hustle and bustle, sushi takeaways for lunch and all the lot, well I don’t. Well, not on a regular basis that is.

If I go back to the office – and I am so lucky I don’t have to return right now – I will struggle to take my daughter to work, I won’t be able to have lunch on my table with my husband (even if it’s just 15m). I won’t be able to give my daughter a hug as she comes from school and I won’t be able to get so much s* done at work either!

I know a lot of people are having to return even if on a flexible basis not because their work always demands that to be the case but because there’s still a lack of trust on the employees (as I wrote here).

I will actually be in the office this month for one random day (mainly to see if I can find my shoes and the stuff I left in the office and because I’m curious to know how it feels like to commute back) so I can write all about it another day.

I do hope somehow we move forward and drive towards a new flexible future that works for everyone (I wrote some of my views here).

Happy Sunday (because there’s no happy Mondays).

Time out

No, I’m not talking about the magazine nor what we tell the kids when they are naughty. I’m referring to time out work (or whatever is stressing you out).

For some reason we live in an environment where we are expected to work at full capacity (or more), all the time and always be smiley and perfect. We can’t deal with negative emotions at all and we just tend to avoid them or hide them far far away so they can never be found.

Bad news is, we are human after all. We can’t be perfect – by nature we are imperfect – we can’t climb the tree (organizational tree), be perfect husbands / wifes, be perfect parents, perfect friends, perfects whatevers. Something has got to give, as blunty as that.

We all know this right? But why can’t we speak about it? I bet it’s way easier to speak about other tabu-like topics such as sex than it is to ackoledge sometimes we just need time out. I’m yet to see someone asking for time-out before they reach burn-out.

Well know I have: me! Yap, no shames, no guilty, no nothing. I was not feeling myself nor in a good place mentally so I had to ask for the unthinkable, and I’ve asked for time out.

• Do I feel a weaker or ashamed I’ve asked for time-out? No!
• Do I feel this will jeopardise my value as an employee? No!
• Do I worry what my colleagues will think of me? No! (and I’ve told my team I was taking a day off because I was not feeling mentally great)
• Do I think in fact I feel stronger after having the courage to just voice it? Yes!
• Do I feel I did the right thing? Absolutely

I know I am priviledged that I work in a place where I can ask for time-out. But why is this a priviledge though? It shouldn’t be! We accept we need time off if we are sick (at least most places do). But why do we still struggle so much at discussing more openly about mental health?

Some places are discussing about it, yet there’s rarely an emples from the top about recognizing our falibility: we are just human! It’s ok not to be ok, it’s ok to feel overwhelmed, it’s ok to feel tired. What is not ok is not to stop to recognize you just need some time out to reset and clear your mind. If you believe asking for time-out will have such negative impacts in your company I would urge you to consider to find another job (as soon as the opportunity arrives).

So just take a moment to reflect where you are right not and what do you need. If you feel overwhelmed, tired, too stress to cope with what you have on your plate, just ask for time out. Take a day off and go for a walk, binge on netflix, whatever you need to clear your mind and relax.

Other articles:

• How to speak with your boss about anxiety (here)
• Another one here
• When you’re boss is secretely thinking about quitting (here)

I don’t trust you therefore I need to see you

Seriously, how can there still be managers out there that do not trust their employees if they can’t micromanage them? Who has even time to micro-manage?

Once upon a time prior to covid, it was quite common for people to believe that if a resource was working from home it’s because he / she was slacking and not being nowhere productive as in the office. It always comes down to trust and what you fear.

As if it wasn’t obvious, every single word here is based on my own opinion.

Anyway, I have indeed work with people that would slack from home and do very little, but let me tell you a secret – in case you didn’t know – you can be in the office pretend you are busy and in fact deliver close to very little! If you don’t believe your team is delivering, you should have a serious conversation with them to see why is that, and last comes to worst fire them (or get them moved to another team). I’m nowhere near an advocate of the american style of just firing people without having proper conversations and explore different alternatives. But like any marriage, if the relationship doesn’t work someone needs to move on.

If this isn’t clear already: I HATE MICRO-MANAGING

I hate being micromanaged, and fortunately throughout my career (mostly), I always had a great degree of freedom. I have no problem being sent somewhere else if people don’t trust me. But I can’t stand micromanagement. So I hate applying it too. I like to be able to trust my team and them coming to me for escalation when they need help. If the work is not being done on time, then we sit down and have a conversation about what’s going wrong and what can be done instead.

And why is that micromanagement is so relevant for the story of working from home versus forcing people into the office?

Well, you have seen some statements of some companies that really want everyone in the office. And this to be sits behind old school thought that employees that are not seen by their “boss” are simply not doing.

Good article on what happens to companies that force employees to return (when they could be flexible) here

Seriously, why on earth would you force your team to come to the office right now? First of all, we are not out of the woods yet (I don’t care about the 19th of July rule, precaution people, precaution!).

Many studies have been published that not only people get the work done, they are even more productive. Most people I have talked to are in fact working longer hours. They get some flexibility to deal with things like the kids are on quarentine (again!) and they end up blurring the lines between online and offline working. There’s always the last email to be sent.

A few articles here:

• Forbes
• Harvard business review
• Nice infographics from Deloitte (if you don’t know that already, I’m like the kids, pictures first, text after)

Seriously, why? I would say managers who feel the need to micromanage should go on coaching courses to address their own insicurities and what’s driving them to micromanage. Good article here.

If you want to retain the best talent, you have to offer flexibility to get flexibility back. As binary as that.

Would love to hear your own stories or views on the topic.

It’s all about coms

Like any good relationship if there’s no good communication, sooner or later the cracks will start to show. This is valid everywhere, from home to office and all around us.

But first and because I can’t resist a few memes here you go:

And this last one pretty much sums how I’m feeling these days

So why does communication matter so much for the organization?

Well to start with, it wouldn’t be organization without communication anyway! To function, organization need to establish communication channels to ensure all the employees are aligned. There’s emails, banners in the offices, newsletters, team meetings and the whole lot. Traditionally the communication would be top > down (although I’m pretty sure some companies still approach it this way). As any kid playing chinese whispers soon enough the message will be lost.

What is often neglected is that the most powerful source of communication is not the offical one. Oh no, it will be the coffee chats, the chit-chats in the corridor, the who knows who about what’s going on. We will trust a close source at the company more than the message that was cascaded down miles from the top.

In reality it’s more like this

All the sources of communication are relevant though. The message from the top should be so simple that you can do it in a 30 seconds lift break. However, companies need to ensure the right people that need to be working together are talking together and are not constrained by the top > down communication flow. Whereas they need to abide by the strategic goals of the company, they need to be empowered to do decision making on the fly amongst themselves.

But why is it so hard though?

1 – Because we are no different than children!

People raise your hand if you have felt you work in the kindergarden! It’s as simple as, if we don’t like one particular person we will not talk, even if we are meant to be working together. We will avoid it with all our heart. You might argue that being a professional adult you should be able to put your own personal feelings aside and ensure there is cooperating. We don’t all need to be friends at work, even though that would be quite nice. The more tired you are, the likely you will try to surround yourself by those you enjoy working with and speaking with. Those with whom you relate. Which to me could be resolved by ensuring you have the right skillsets in your team but also their personalities end up working towards the goal you want to achieve.

2 – Because there is a communication overflow

There’s e-mail non stop 24/7, millions and millions of them no matter how many fancy rules you establish on your outlook, then there’s team messenger where you chit chat with your colleagues but also get chased by people trying to seek your attention, then there’s your own personal overflow of communications like alerts on your phone to pay the bill, read some gossiping online, the news, you name it. So unless you are very disciplined at managing all the different sources of communication you will feel overwhelmed and potentially not notice the key ones until it’s much later. This is where the ability to prioritize becomes key.

3 – We are tribal

Yap, we are. That’s how we evolved. And I’m sure it’s easy to find what the tribes are in your workplace. Typically these will be departments, or even teams in a given project. Within the team it’s easier to get communication flowing, but to cross your tribe that’s a whole new level. There is more resistence to go and ensure you are aligning with a completely different team. You might not be interacting with them on a daily basis therefore you don’t have the same level of confidence and trust. It seems there is an invisible China wall between teams and they just won’t speak, even when it’s in their interest to align. Ways to overcome this would be to do workshops together where the teams discuss the dependencies between them and agree the most efficient way of communication (e.g. 1 team member of each team would have a working group to discuss common points). The lack of cross communication might be a reflection of a blaming culture, and people would rather stay within their boundaries than venture on the other side and be blamed for something. So they don’t talk, nor share. But like at home, if you don’t talk, you don’t resolve the issues you should be resolving and sooner or later the cracks will come when it might be too late to resolve them.

So let’s go back to why does it matter

Fostering good and open communication channels throughout the organization will enable employees to share their ideas, concerns and points for improvement. This will only happen if they believe their individual voice will be heard. Team leads need to be empowered to act upont the information they receive to make a change on the fly as and when situation occour.

Through good communication, especially outside the specific department or team will enable the company & the leadership to define strategic innitatives and which teams should be working together based on successful achievements from the past. If there is no good communication you will see the same type of innitiative being done in 3 different places by completely different teams (which in turn will be more costly) and with the risk of impacting each other negatively at a later stage.

Knowledge will be shared faster and teams will be able to upskill each other and stay relevant, which in the end can only be competitive advantage. Also, on a team level basis, if there is good communication then the team lead will be able to spot and act when the employee might be feeling demotivated or upset which in turn would lead him to leave the company and go to the competition instead.

Authenticity

What is the number 1 rule you don’t compromise?

Well mine is authenticity.

This wasn’t always the case though. In the begining, like anyone just starting their career you want to say yes to everything and we want to fit in. In fact I was even told what to wear when I started in a big 4. Yap, suit. I had just started, I had no money to spend in suits but you had to follow the rules, you had to fit in.

Everyone is working until late? You stay late

Everyone laughts at the same jokes? You laugh too even if you don’t get it.

Soon enough you’ve blended in and you’re like everyone else around you. I know a lot of people that believe they have many selves: the one they are at home, the one they are with their friends and their professional self and normally they don’t mix in.

Can you imagine how exhausting this must be? I think probably after my first year working I’ve started to realize I was working far too hard so I had no energy left to try to hide who I really was. As I started to have more comfidence in myself I just dropped it completely and I am who I am. I say what I believe in (even if that’s not the popular thing to say). There is freedom in that, a lot of it in fact. I practice the same rule at home, I hide nothing, I don’t filter my wording and I don’t expect my husband or my daughter to have to filter what they tell me because it might hurt my feelings or I might get offended. If they can’t be their true self at home where can they?

Note: I don’t like Apple and not a fan of Steve Jobs (yes, I know one of the rare ones) even if I recognize all the amazing things he did. But I do like this quote a lot

But why does authenticity matter in the office?

To the individual, it’s the level of energy spent in trying to camuflage and blend in. That energy can be better used in coming up with good ideas to tackle problems or drive innovation. Don’t undersestimate the level of mental effort required to measure every word you say, how you speak, how you blend in. It’s a lot! I actually faced this at uni, because I was coming from a smaller city and my parents were middle-low class and most of my colleagues were from posh schools and privately educated. I hated it! Not that I hated them, but I hated the fact being myself was a disadvantage and I couldn’t really blend in.

Also let me say I come from a more priviledged background where my race or my background was never an issue and less subject to unconscious bias. I know for a lot of people choosing to be authentic might not even feel like a choice. But if we all start to be more authentic and show different voices and opinions can be shared and are welcomed, it will empower others to follow suit.

For this very same reason I don’t wear makeup and I feel quite strongly about it. It’s part of what I believe in and I’m not going to change it even if I had a million people telling me it matters a lot in the office and you should dress for success. It doesn’t align with my values. So, no!

Also, I sing in the office if I feel like it and more important I do say what I believe in even if my opinion is likely not to be popular. If I feel I have to voice what I’m feeling, I will, even if that might get me in trouble. (please note I’m not advocating anyone to be rude or insult people. This is about voicing your opinions in a constructive manner if no one else is voicing them. You will find a lot of people were feeling same as you but no one had the courage to say it out loud.)

If you find that being authentic in your company is leading you to trouble I would challenge you to consider if you are in the right place then. I know it might be scary to change in the current environment, but watch out for opportunities and if you get one, get out.

So what’s in it for the company?

As per above, as I wrote in the diversity post, the company will have a lot of energy at their disposal to use for innovative projects or even thinking on how to optimize existing processes. Diversity is crutial for evolution, for us as a species and the same is relevant for the organizations too.

Leaders need to give the example and not just say what they are expected to say. Together with Empathy, Authenticity is crutial too. Leaders will also benefit from all the points above! More energy saved means it can be better used in making better decisions for the company too. You will find your employees will relate to your empathy and pay more attention to what you say because it’s also what you do in your every day action. Authenticity helps to build trust, and without trust no relationship can survive.

Further reading

• https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_be_more_authentic_at_work
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanpeart/2019/12/11/authenticity-at-work-why-it-matters-for-millennials-and-how-it-can-improve-your-bottom-line/?sh=78ed0bcb2f75

Competitiveness in the office and the role of parents

Warning: it might be a controversial topic

Competitiveness – possession of a strong desire to be more successful than others.

Oxford Languages

Have you notice there’s more and more competitiveness in the office? Well, way more than all of us would there too admit. Not all competitiveness is bad though, a good healthy those ensures we all want to do our best and in turn, the company also gets better.

Source: https://www.mtievents.com/blog/healthy-vs-toxic-competition-workplace/

But in more than healthy doses, you end up with a toxic environment where no one trusts each other and you will believe your colleagues will stab your back if that is what it takes to get into the top. You end up with employees overworking and some passing the point of burnout.

In western countries we are now: me, me, me. We all want to be special and be better than the one next to you. We compare everything from the job title (sometimes more than the money itself), to the number of likes and who seems to get it all. Breaking news: it’s not by being individual we’ve succeeded in our evolution!

But why are we getting more and more competitive? Let’s start with kids. Yes, that’s right kids. From the moment parents discover they will be getting a child they are already dreaming if their little querubim is going to be the next Mozart, or the next Einstein and I believe some parents expect all at the same time!

I’m not kidding if I say even with things as silly as an easter hat parents go clearly extreme to ensure their kid’s one is the best (when it’s meant to be about you having fun with your kid doing something together, at least that’s what I believe it is about). Then they bombard the kids with classes of everything and the world from swiming, to piano lessons, horse riding, sports and they complain they are too tired. I wonder where in the agenda it fits pure simple playing? Even my 4 year old gets obsessed with winning all the time even without any encouragement from my side to win anything!

Source: https://story.motherhood.com.my/blog/tips-kids-science-interest/

Even in order to get to good schools you need to be top of the top, so no wonder that, by the time the kids are going to uni they are obsessive students who depend on study drugs. Maybe I’m showing my age here, but I remember going to uni was not just about getting a degree but also embracing the last few years before facing work.

I remember when in a big 4 a group of analysts (that’s normally their first or second year), they were dressed full of expensive brands and they would do whatever it took them to be noticed by the senior leadership.

Some do believe this works because only the stronger survive in the end, but if you foster an environment where no one can trust each other, you are losing the economic maxism: “The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts”. We can do more if we work together, but we will only genuinly collaborate and work together if we trust each other (at least on a professional level).

So yeah, parents have a huge role in all of this to ensure the future generations can manage a good dose of competitiveness but without going extreme.

How to stay sane while WFH

Welcome to the world of working from home. We should all be experts by now given it’s been more than 1 year right? Some people are looking forward to be back in the office and have human interactions again while others are more than happy to continue like this.

From my side, I had already worked from home quite a lot in the past prior to becoming the new normal, especially as I used to travel weekly so the Friday was from home and sometimes I would try to squeeze in a whole week of working from home. After having my daughter I felt the need even more but I was in a project where I had to come up with a million reasons why that day I needed to work from home and let me say that was extremely frustrating. I see the world more goal oriented, either you deliver or you don’t. For all I care people could be working from the beach as long as the goals are met. I know a lot of people will totally disagree with me on this.

Ok, I really want to eleborate a bit more here. I do believe if companies give you flexibility – e.g. if you need to work from home providing your goals and those of your team are not impacted, then you can – then you will also end up giving flexibility back to the company – e.g. cram in weekend work due to a very important deadline. They can’t be one sided only otherwise you’ll just end up with frustration. If you don’t trust the people on your team to be working while at home, then they shouldn’t be in the team, should they? (scrap this point if the employement laws make it next to impossible to get rid of someone even with valid reasons).

Anyway, no matter if you had experience working from home, if you prefer to be in the office or at home, when suddendly all of us were home it impacted us all big time (and for those with kids at home: you guys are superheroes).

Before I carry on and because I love memes, here’s another one

For more memes check here

So how do you keep sane if you’re working from home?

Idea 1 – Maintain a routine. You would have one if you were going to the office right? You would live the house give or take at the same time, and return back home at the same time. So the same rules are valid at home as well. Decide what you want to do with your commute time in the morning, e.g. you might want to sleep all of it like I do now, you could do half / half and wake up earlier to have time to enjoy a morning walk so you are by your desk when you would normally be in the office. You should reverse the slot to have your food – you would eat in the office wouldn’t you? So ensure you block your calendar for eating – refer to my show to your calendar who’s the boss for more tips on this – and also define when you will stop your working day.

I think it’s the stopping most people struggle because they don’t have to commute back home and then home and work just blend in as one and the same where you are still constantly checking emails. Well, don’t. Just define a time when you will be stopping – except emergencies – and stop it.

Idea 2 – Find ways to make a clear cut between when you’re in working mode vs at home – It’s so easy to just roll from bed and start working immediately but this means your brain doesn’t have the time to shift from resting time into completely work mode.

You can always do like this guy here (now a meme)

Note: I’ve googled this one, but don’t know who owns the original picture and it’s so good!

Ok, maybe not like this one, but the idea if you do something that allows your brain to move between states (the state where you were sleeping so well and now you have to face work). If you could get dressed and go for a quick walk around the block before turning on the pc that would be great, but it can be as simple as having a quick shower and getting dressed, then stopping by your local coffee machine (in your kitchen) and make your favourite coffee and then turn on the pc. On Lockdown 1.0 I was doing morning yoga before starting my working day, by lockdown 2.0 (given it was winter) I had given up all my energy so just do the coffee bit. Before I start working I also open all the curtains and windows to let the light in before turning on the pc. I check a few emails and then will have breakfast before coming back to meetings as this is something I did a few times in the office – arrive at 07, check emails, and get breakfast at 07h30 downstairs.

Once you stop working the same is necessary. I stop far too late so I can no longer go for a walk outside (I do the walk to take my daughter to school in the morning), but I just shut the lid of the pc and go to the kitchen. The moment I live my desk I know I’m done and I won’t be coming back to this desk until next day. On the weekend I put my personal laptop on top of the work one so I know even if I’m sitting on the same desk, I’m doing non work stuff (like writing this post).

Idea 3 – Do breaks! You would do breaks to speak with your colleagues or to get another coffee, so why not do the same at home? I do reserve slots on my day to chit chat with my colleagues, sometimes we even do camera content. The current favourite is to show who has the funniest background. I can’t recommend this enough, but try to connect to people and reach out to them to ensure they are ok.

Idea 4 – Find “a space” that will be your working area – When lockdown started, I didn’t had a desk. My husband already worked from home for a few years so he had the office and no space for me so sit and place my pc. So my office for a good 4 months was my daughters IKEA chair and I would have the laptop on my legs.

Eventually I ended up buying a small desk and moving some furniture around so it would fit in the living room. I know the concept of having an office in your home it’s something which most of us can’t really accomodate, so just find a corner in the house where you can fit a small desk and a comfy chair so you can work. If it’s the kitchen table (because no space for even the tiniest desk) then ensure you get a comfortable chair for your back. I currently have a corner of the living room which has my desk and a frame on top of the desk and I have a plant too. But if you’re spending so many hours, make it comfortable and accessorize it to your taste. You can even put some shoes around like you would in the office (or not).

Idea 5 – Make the most of it! – If you are not in meetings you can have your favourite songs playing in the background and you won’t be disturbing your colleagues and no need for headsets, you might even squeeze in a quick dance! Do you need to make the laundry? Then just go for it. Comfy clothing? Yes bring it on.

Idea 6 – Let go of any perfectionist idea – There’s no time for it and you’ll have to compromise somewhere, so just accept what is key and what needs to stay behind and not be done, because no one can have it all, no matter how many books say “here’s 5 leaders that have it all”, they don’t.

Finally I would take the time to think about what you believe the new normal will be and what you would like to maintain even when we return to normal life. For me it was already clear I wanted to work regularly from home a few days (prior to know this was going to be happening) and now I’m convinced this is what I would like to do so I can take my little one to school and can help out with dinner (which I never did in the past during the week).

Also, I used to use my commutes to read books, so I’ve decided to shift that to the evenings before falling asleep and quite happy to have done 17 books already from January to now.

So what’s your new normal? Whatever it is, stay sane.

Finishing with some home office ideas

Sourced from https://kaylasimonehome.com/blog/tiny-home-offices-that-rock-and-my-own-home-office-space

Sourced from: https://www.digsdigs.com/33-cool-small-home-office-ideas/

Sourced from: https://www.digsdigs.com/33-cool-small-home-office-ideas/

Below the stairs office, Idea by Grillo Designs

When it’s time to make a change

Inspired by the change of seasons, was thinking about when it’s time to move on. Most people just think that moving on means that what we had before was bad, like a failed relationship and time to move on, a tiny house? time to move on. But does it really have to be just about leaving bad things behind? Well, not always.

Thinking of my own career, I have been quite lucky over the years that I never left because I was in a bad place or a in a bad team, but mostly because another opportunity popped up. This is certainly true for the biggest changes I had:

• Was contacted by a London company when I was still in my home country and the first question that popped in my mind was: well, why not? So I’ve packed my bags and just moved. Was it easy? No way! Not to mention it was quite expensive to move. All the savings I had accummulated up until that moment were simply gone with paying hotel rooms, deposit for the house, flights and other moving expenses. Also my other half moved with me without having a job. It was really hard but honestely the best decision I ever did.
• Then I moved because a friend sent my cv as he was hoping I would be flying less, working from London more and working less hours. I did stop flying indeed but not really the travel. I will confess I did regret this move quite a lot. I really liked where I was but looking back I knew I was in a breaking point. It was a matter of time, I had to change.
• The last time I moved, and it’s almost been 4 years now, was because on my first day back from my maternity leave I did a coffee stop to chat with my to be new boss. This was the moment I’ve said goodbye to consultancy firms and went to industry instead.

So indeed for me there was always a pattern which was always about opportunities popping up and me saying yes. This is a very priviledged position to be in, I have to recognize that. However it got me thinking a lot about the topic.

What is the point you start to feel comfortable in your seat? I mean we all like to be cozy and know the people you work with, it brings a sense of belonging and stability but sometimes from a career perspective it means you are no longer doing new stuff which is key to your own development.

Maybe worth saying I’m writing this with the view of personal development and not necessarily thinking about the career growth. Following from the previous post, this is a different angle of exploring Ikigai, Where else could you be thinking about using your skills to bring you a new angle into your work life (and maybe even personal) and where you could also bring a fresh mind to a different team?

Recently in a coffee chat, one of our senior leaders said that she was trying to speak with different people (at her peer level) working in completely different teams to have a better view of what else is done within the organization and for herself to have a better view of what she could be doing and what else she could learn. And I thought, this is actually a really good idea!

I do remember when I was still graduating from uni and I had no idea what I wanted to do. My first internship was at the HR department but because I was good with technology I’ve ended up helping to implement the internal sharepoint. At the time I really wanted to explore marketing and I applied for a few positions, but where I’ve landed was in customer relationship development in a huge technology firm. My boss back then told me I would be a great fit for consultancy, so that’s what I did. I’ve sent my cv to one of the big 4 to see where it would take me. Given my past background in technology I ended up in the technology arm of the firm. Even there, on my first year I was helping the team to produce user guides for all the different areas, as part of that I’ve ended up doing testing and ultimately it gave me a good view within that area of what I could be doing. I think I was the only one of my peer group who ended up having a choice of what I wanted to do next! After that I’ve managed to never do the same thing twice and I guess that’s why I never really abandoned consultancy because each project is different.

But now I’m missing back the days where I could just experiment completely different things to have a better sense of what I wanted to do. I’ll be totally honest, I still don’t know! Yes that’s right, because I know there are so many things I haven’t yet tried I don’t know what else is out there I can try and maybe end up liking.

So really the question you should be asking yourself, maybe for a smaller step, is what are other teams doing in your company? Is there anything you could try? Could even be as simple as speaking with your line manager and find a few hours to help a completely different team so you can grow a particular skillset. I keep on telling my own team, if there’s anything you want to try just let me know and we’ll work together to ensure you get a few hours so you can do it. I don’t think they take me seriously though. But if you don’t try how do you know? I just seriously can’t understand people that stay 20 years or more doing exactly the same day after day. Yes, it’s comfortable I know, so is my sofa and I don’t spend 24h there.

Just because the office is the office, it doesn’t mean you can’t make it fun for you, and surely learning something new and prooving you can do it is a good healthy challenge. If it goes wrong you can always go back to what you were doing before.

Ikigai @ The Office

First let me start by saying I’m a huge fan of Japanese culture, from Kaizen (continuous improvement), to the great sense of community where everyone feels proud of what they do because it’s all important to the community (not just yourself). If I’m feeling stressed out I always try to close my eyes and return to the place I felt most at peace, and that was a Zen garden in the outskirts of Kyoto.

There have been many trends and inspirations from Japandi to japanese food and Marie Kondo. I was chatting with my team this week and I’ve said a few times that I believe the western world has lost a sense of purpose and even mastery (and my mastery I mean purposefully wanting to continue to improve a particular skillset). Do you wonder why the japanese people live for so long? A possible explanation (along with lifestyle choices) is related to Ikigai.

I first discovered Ikigai 1 or 2 years ago (I completely lose track of time these days) through the book below.

This book is available at Amazon here, at Watersontes here and at Foyles here

The book mainly focus on how they apply Ikigai – or one’s purpose – to live better and longer and the more I think about it the more I believe this is very relevant for the our office live as well. Not just for us as human beings but for the organization as a whole.

Because I’m a firm believe a picture is better than words (and same as the kids I focus on the pictures first and if I don’t get it I will read the text after) see below.

In summary Ikigai is about finding that sweet spot on what you love, you are good at (or with some training and mastery you can improve) and that the world needs. It’s all about what makes you wake up in the morning and feel this is what you want to be doing because it has a purpose, not just for you but as a contribution to society. It’s what would make you love Mondays (if such a thing is possible).

Most people – and again please note I’m contextualizing people working in offices – go to work to get money. Let’s face it, we need it. But when is the point where we say I have what I need, I’m contended therefore I can focus on what I trully enjoy doing and maybe dedicating some of my time contributing to a bigger purpose. We get carried away that we need more money to buy more stuff, because stuff gives us status and likes, but once you get them you have to work get harder to get more, more and more. How do you end up? Most of us, just plain miserable.

See this concept of me me me, look at me I’m a special snow flake is recently new and very western. We evolved by being part of a group and I think that’s where the magic of Ikigai begins.

How do you believe that, if you as an individual worked out what you’re good and can do, but also thought about how you and your team can continue to evolve together to make things better for everyone? It could be organizing everyone to tackle a small charitable project (e.g. painting a local school, arranging a garden outside) and then applying your learnings back into the office? You would feel more connected, you would feel you have a purpose, that the company you work for genuinely wants to make things better. Wouldn’t that be better? Would you feel less moody on a Monday morning?

What we get is this sense that you and you alone have to work harder to be noticed, to then get promotion and then it doesn’t even matter if you feel it has a purpose, as the purpose if to fulfill your own ego. I can’t believe for a second that in the end this is even beneficial for the organization. Soon enough people burn out and at some point they leave and with every person that leaves is a small portion of the companies reputation that gets damaged. As I’ve written a few times, one day you are the employee next day you might be the client.

The question we should all be asking is do you want to wait until retirement to be doing the things you love doing and that make you smile? Is there anything you can do right now in the role you have at your company to make life easier for you and those around you? If you are totally miserable with your job, I would seriously consider living and reassess why you’ve stayed for so long and I would sit down and try to find what else you could do to reuse the skills you have and find a new job where you will be able to continue to pay your bills but do something more fulfilling.

No company will ever benefit from an employee who’s miserable, this person cannot be at their best no matter how many hours you put on. No company will benefit from an environment where everyone is stabbing each other to grow up in the hierarchy.

And no, not advocating everyone to resign right here right now because I’m sure there are things you can implement now. For instance I take a great sense of fulfillment by ensuring my team enjoys working together and that everyone feels respected and that their voice is being listen to. I enjoy when I am able to share my own personal experiences to someone more junior than me so they can relate and take their own lessons out of it (some would call it mentoring). If you are into sports then why not create a sports team in your group? Arts? Same thing. Don’t restrict what your work is to the deliverables you have to achieve day in and day out or what your oulook tells you that you need to be doing. Find what you can implement right now to make you part of something bigger where all of you will benefit from it, find your own ikigai.