Chicas to the front – what the Spice Girls taught us about business

“We welcome all ages, all races, all gender identities, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations, all religions, beliefs and all abilities”

Spice Girls, Spice World Tour 2019

To me, growing up in West London through the Nineties was the absolute best, it meant dressing up as your favourite Spice Girl or All Saint, you either loved Blur or Oasis (you never sat on the fence with that one!) and you could buy literally everything you needed from the Great British High Street.

I remember the long summers running around with my friends; for me, the one thing I remember about growing up in the 90’s was how pop culture brought everyone together, not everyone could afford the latest CD’s so my friends and I would make mixtapes for each other and swap CD’s on the school bus.

Whilst the Nineties was colourful and full of optimism, at the time, it was incredibly hard for most families, unemployment was high and the country was still recovering from the biggest recession the country has ever seen in the mid Eighties.

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Can we truly achieve happiness at work?

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“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” Ferris Bueller

A recent research report published by Gallup suggests that the worlds happiness levels are at their lowest level in over a decade. Well that’s a depressing concept to start this blog post off with but unfortunately that is a reality. Gallup surveyed 154,000 people across 146 different countries, proving that happiness is a worldwide issue.

Recently, I was fortunate to discuss this very topic at the Natural HR Conference at Monkey World in Dorset, and the session centred around trying to get people to realise where true happiness came from and if we keep looking for it (at work or otherwise!) then we simply won’t find it.

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Reflections on Mental Health Awareness Week

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Today marks the end of Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 and so this week, I have taken some time to reflect about my personal thoughts and feelings.

As you may (or may not) have noticed, my blogs and social media presence have not been as consistent as they would normally, this is because I’m having to make a stark admittance to myself, I am struggling.

After a non-stop four years, my mental health has started to suffer and whilst I love nothing more than the busyness of my successful career, sometimes we have to recognise and listen to what our minds and bodies need. Mine right now is screaming at me to stop.

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Disrupt HR Nottingham #DisruptHR

 

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the incredible Disrupt HR event in Nottingham and what an event it was!

I’ve not attended a Disrupt HR event before so being honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was so beneficial for so many reasons, I met some amazing people who had a different perspective on our profession so not only did I learn a lot, I also gained some invaluable connections too.

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Succeeding through failure

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As many of you already know, I have recently taken my CIPD Level 7 examinations in January and have recently received my results; I passed one but sadly the one I worked really hard on, I failed.

That F on that piece of paper was devastating, I’ve been in HR for 13 years, worked really hard, know my stuff and usually have a thick skin but that F really hurt!

I am writing this about a month after receiving that F, and I have had a chance to step back and reflect on it and that F really isn’t that bad, in fact, it has taught me a lot of things which can be taken as a positive through my career journey; after all, if life isn’t lived like you’re on a rollercoaster, it’s not living, it’s existing.

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