HR musings with added sparkle!
Let’s be honest – December in the workplace is absolute carnage, isn’t it?
Secret Santa gone wrong. Someone’s ordered three pairs of shoes on company time. Dave from Accounts is three sheets to the wind at 2pm. And don’t even get me started on the passive-aggressive battle royale over who gets Christmas week off.
Sound familiar?
Continue reading “Festive Chaos in the Workplace? We’ve Got You Covered”
Pursuing your dreams can be hard, there are moments of discouragement, countless rejections and disappointment. This can encourage us to throw in the towel and just give up (that’s the easiest option right?), but every now and again, you’ll read a story that inspires you and encourages you to not give up. I hope that this blog will do exactly that.
Over the Christmas break, I have been lucky to spend more time with my family than I usually would, and also some downtime that gave me an opportunity to reflect on everything that has happened over the past 12 months. It has been incredibly busy with Rebox HR as the business continues to grow, but I have also grown as a person too, I’ve spoken at multiple events, hosted my own conference, launched training programmes, won multiple awards, and appeared on 17 different podcasts. Overall, it has been an incredible year, but it hasn’t been without it challenges.
Continue reading “Your Dream is Possible”
“Being a father means you have to think fast on your feet. You must be judicious, wise, brave, tender, and willing to put on a frilly hat and sit down to a pretend tea party.”
Matthew Buckley, Fatherhood: The Manliest Profession
The debate around parental leave is one that seems to be ongoing and in light of the latest British Social Attitudes survey, the results demonstrate that despite being in 2019, that there is still a strong view towards mothers taking the lead on parental leave.
Despite the shifting dynamics of UK households, a time where women have a focus upon their career and are quickly becoming the main source of income within thousands of households, it begs the question; what can we do to change the view on fathers taking time out to bring up their children equally with mothers?
Continue reading “Working fathers need flexibility too! Encouraging gender equality in parenting”
Welcome to week two of HR acts of kindness!
This week, it’s al about how we can be kinder to ourselves. As we are already well aware, life can generally be very stressful, there are so many demands on our time such as juggling work with quality time with our loved ones, it makes it difficult to fit in that much needed “you time”.
Given that HR acts of kindness encourages us to be kinder to those within our workplaces and people around us, it can seem difficult to practice kindness when it can feel that the world is upon your shoulders; so by being kinder to ourselves, it helps us to be more positive and therefore more likely to practice kindness on a more regular basis.
When I began writing this piece, it was difficult to fully piece together what the picture of men’s mental health looks like from a man’s perspective, not because I’m a woman, but because so few are reluctant to speak out. In this case, it makes this piece all the more worthwhile.
Unfortunately, around one in eight men in England are currently living with a mental health issue and with suicide being the largest cause of death for men under 35, it only highlights the scale of this problem. So why are so many people reluctant to talk about it? Maybe it is because so many men may be reluctant to seek support, there are thousands of men suffering in silence due to the stigma surrounding this taboo subject.
Sadly many are afraid to speak openly about their mental health even with those closest to them, and whilst this topic is not a new issue, people are still shying away from it, so isn’t it time we start talking openly about men’s mental health?
Natalie Ellis HR 