Proving My Achievements

I had a surprise recently, and not one of the nice ones.

My company offered me some management training, and I took the opportunity. That’s not the surprise. And I’ve found it both thought-provoking and immediately practical. That’s not the surprise either, though I may come back to this point in future posts.

The training is presented as an apprenticeship and it comes with government funding, but to unlock that I had to prove that I was worthy of the opportunity. In other words I had to demonstrate that I had the equivalent of a GCSE pass in English and Maths. Not, you would imagine, a problem for someone with a Cambridge University Degree, and indeed it shouldn’t have been.

Anyway, here’s the surprise. I went to the place where I keep all the valuable papers and they weren’t there. Any of my various O Level, A Level or Degree certificates. So I looked in all the other credible locations. Still nothing.

And that’s when it happened. I absolutely don’t want to compare my situation with the tragic experiences of the Windrush generation, who suddenly found their identities and citizenship questioned after many years when they thought it was beyond question. What I did experience, though, was an appreciation for how much of our identities and entitlements are tied up in a small number of official documents. I guess that I showed mine to my current employers 27 years ago when I first joined and I’ve never needed to refer to them since.

How do you prove something when you don’t have the right paperwork? It was such a long time ago that I took my O Levels - nearly 40 years now. O Levels disappeared pretty quickly - only a few years after I took them they became GCSEs. My school no longer exists in the place or identity that I attended, and the educational establishment that replaced it couldn’t help me. The exam boards no longer exist either. So it’s not a straightforward task by any means.

I was lucky, first in that it was hardly a matter of life and death for me whether I was able to prove my educational qualifications. And also I have a good enough memory that I could remember where, when and with whom I had taken those exams. So I was able to find successors to the exam boards who are able to provide replacement certificates, given the right cues. And my memories were sufficient to provide them with all the information they needed.

So last weekend I got a card-backed envelope through the post and, almost 39 years after I first sat them, I had proof again of my O Levels in English Language and English Literature (and also Latin, should I ever need evidence of that in future). Maths will be on its way soon enough (a different exam board) and the government will be satisfied that I’m a suitable person to be receiving this training.

But I won’t forget the experience in a hurry, and the lesson that I’m taking from this experience is to make digital copies of all the important paperwork that I have just in case I ever mislay them. It may be possible to recover copies, as with these, but it’s not something you’d want to do if you can avoid it.

- Richard

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Changes have been afoot at If It's Hurting It's Not Working, our podcast all about work - how we work, why we work and what makes a great job.

After many months away, we’ve finally posted a new episode. Sadly we say goodbye to Emily, who helped to devise our format and has been a huge part of its success. But that means Nicola is joining Richard to co-host the podcast. Nicola has been a strong supporter of ours since the start.

We're back with an episode all about making changes and moving on. And we'll temper the thrill of making and seizing opportunities that take us away from what we know, with the knowledge that sometimes it's worth hanging on to what we already have. We have a wide ranging discussion about the value of new beginnings, why you might want to stay somewhere for longer and how to weigh up our options.

And, never one to miss an opportunity to hit you over the head with a metaphor, Richard uses his favourite TV programme to illustrate the point by recreating a famous "regeneration" scene.

Everything Changes

Emily and Richard are back, albeit briefly. As you may have gathered from the title "Everything Changes" there's a lot going on in both of our lives right now, which we run though in the podcast, but there are two key takeaways:

1) We're pausing things until the autumn, but we do intend to come back with new episodes then, and indeed we already have at least one clear idea for those.

2) When we do come back, there will be a slight change of emphasis and a broadening out of the central concept - If It's Hurting It's Not Working - but don't worry, if you've liked what we've done so far there will still be plenty of that content. Again Emily and I give a little more substance to our plans in the latest episode.

Thanks to all our listeners for your support during this first year of our podcast. It's meant a lot to see the interest in our episodes and to get feedback from some of you, often via our most popular social platform, LinkedIn, and sometimes in person.

Keep listening to the end, because even in this short an episode we still manage to produce a fair few outtakes.

Our Podbean podcast website: https://ifhurtnotwork.podbean,com

Our LinkedIn page is: linkedin.com/company/ifhurtnotwork

Twitter: @IfHurtNotWork

Email: ifhurtnotwork@gmail.com

Working In Concert

Bringing this website up to date, here’s our most recent full episode.

As we highlighted previously, earlier in the year we had the chance to bring If It's Hurting It's Not Working to the company where we work, as a live show at three of our major sites. And it was fantastic to talk with colleagues about their working lives and some of the pivotal moments in them. While we can't share those recordings with you, as they're too company-specific, one of the highlights of the series of shows was our chat with Sean West. So Emily and Richard have remounted and expanded that discussion with Sean for everyone who was unable to hear the live version.

Sean has some great observations about what he's learned from a variety of jobs, including some that are a long way from his current role as a Chief Finance Officer. These include the importance of us all working together to achieve an outcome, the need to avoid assumptions, how we can all make an impact and how our views can be at least as valid as those who apparently have more knowledge or experience. We talk about the continued disruptions to the marketplaces in which we work and how we can best handle the impact of uncertainty on both our work and household finances.

Sean is great company and doesn't pretend to have all the answers, but his humour and honesty are infectious and he imparts plenty of wisdom along the way.

Our podbean site is here: https://ifhurtnotwork.podbean.com

Our LinkedIn page is: linkedin.com/company/ifhurtnotwork

Twitter: @IfHurtNotWork

Email: ifhurtnotwork@gmail.com

Our fantastic cover art was designed for us by Bea Garrido. She's a really talented artist, who listened to what we wanted to do with the podcast and then stepped us through a series of concepts until we found the one we really liked. Thanks Bea. You can find her on Twitter using @BeaGarrido00, where she's recently posted some remarkable paintings of characters from Richard's other passion, Doctor Who.

And finally, the reason you're hearing this podcast at all is because Emily had her wits about her and pointed out that we needed to start the recording when Richard had forgotten to. As Sean says, it's all about teamwork.

Live podcasts

Here are some photos of the If It's Hurting It's Not Working live podcasts that we took part in during May at Arqiva, the company where Emily and Richard both work. These were part of the Let’s Connect initiative, bringing colleagues back together in numbers to enjoy both social time and the opportunity to take part in panel sessions, of which our live podcast one

In the top photo we're at Emley Moor, talking with our colleague Charli. Below that is Daventry, with guests Emily (another Emily!) and Sean and at the bottom is Crawley Court with Georgie and Katrina.

While these events were for colleagues only and won't appear on our podcast feed, we have made plans to record a couple of episodes, one later this month and another in July that will bring some similar content to our recorded podcast.

It was great fun to bring our podcast to colleagues and to feed off the energy of a live audience and we look forward to releasing new episodes soon.

Smart Money

It's been a while, but Emily and Richard are back with an episode all about money.

As a cost of living crisis hits in the UK, it's a good time to discuss one of the key reasons why we all work. Yes, fulfilment and career development are really important, but work is the main or indeed only source of income for most of us. And while having money isn’t everything, when you don't have enough it's all you can think about.

We talk about our experience with money, how to have a healthy relationship with it, how to find a job that pays you enough of it and where things can go wrong. We also talk about how money struggles can impact your mental health and how to find help if that happens.

You can find all our episodes at our Podbean website

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/ifhurtnotwork

Twitter: @IfHurtNotWork

Instagram: ifitshurtingitsnotworking

Email: ifhurtnotwork@gmail.com

Artwork: @BeaGarridoArt

Resources:

Money and Mental Health Policy Institute https://www.moneyandmentalhealth.org/

Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/

Mind https://www.mind.org.uk/

Young Minds https://www.youngminds.org.uk/

CALM https://www.thecalmzone.net/

Mental Health UK https://mentalhealth-uk.org/

Double Covid Strike

if you're wondering what's happened to If It's Hurting It's Not Working podcast in April, I'm afraid we've suffered a double Covid strike on the hosts. First it was me, starting about a month ago and then, just as I was getting back on my feet, the same thing happened to Emily last week.

We looked for ways to fit a recording in, but you don't want hear us going through the motions, so Emily made the sensible decision for both of us of postponing until much later in the month, when we hope we'll be more coherent.

In the meantime, if you haven't heard all 8 of our episodes yet, this would be a great opportunity to catch up.

We've got episodes about Work / Life Balance, the impact of Covid on the workplace (before we caught it!), how to make changes in your job and work, and mental health at work. We've also spoken about what it's like to be a CEO with Paul Donovan and the phenomenon of invisible middle aged women in the workplace with Clare Salters.

If you have listened to what we do and enjoyed it, can I ask you to tell someone else about our podcast? We're still at the stage where we're growing an audience and while people tell us they enjoy listening, you've got to know it's out there to give it a go.

Most of us have to work for a living. And many of us work for at least 8 hours a day and at least 5 days a week. That’s a lot of time in our lives to invest in anything, particularly if we’re unhappy, bored or unfulfilled. So If It's Hurting It's Not Working is our podcast all about work - why we work, how we work and what makes a great job. What makes a great workplace, how to turn things round when we’re not enjoying our work and, in the end, how we can all make our work better.

If It's Hurting It's Not Working is our LinkedIn page.

A worldwide audience

It's been quite a fortnight for If It's Hurting It's Not Working, our podcast all about work - why we work, how we work and what makes a great job.

Two things happened pretty much simultaneously: we posted our March episode featuring the excellent Clare Salters, with some fascinating stories and observations from her career; and Podbean, our podcast hosting provider featured us in their app and on their website in their Business section.

As a result, we've had a lot of new listeners. It was only a couple of weeks back that we posted the badge Podbean had sent us for 1000 downloads. Now we're well on the way to another 1000.

Also, what the last fortnight has brought home to us is the international nature of podcasts. We post an episode and we never know where it might end up. Since March 1st we've had 521 downloads from listeners in 56 different countries. And not just English speaking ones, like the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and NZ, but right across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. There are some images to help show the reach.

We're realistic enough to understand that not all downloads will be heard. And of those that are listened to, not all will be liked. But even the prospect of someone in Thailand or Ghana listening to what Emily, our guests and I have to say would have seemed pretty remote a few months back.

In other podcast news, in response to the survey we ran on LinkedIn and other feedback we've had, Emily and I have decided to go with alternate styles for our episodes. At the start of April you'll get an episode with just the two of us discussing a theme related to work, and then a month after that we'll have a guest talking about their career and we'll cycle through that for a while and see how it works.

You can find links to all of our podcasts from this site as well as articles and links to our social media accounts. Our podcasts are hosted here.

World map showing countries where listeners have downloaded our podcast
US map showing states where listeners have downloaded our podcast

In the Public Domain

Emily and Richard have another guest on the podcast, and this time it's the fantastic Clare Salters, who tells us all about her career, which she has spent in the public and voluntary sectors. We hear what it's like to work with people and on issues that make the news and how that's not easily compatible with family life.

Clare also has some important observations on how middle-aged women are perceived in the workplace and she and Emily talk about how it's harder in general for women to have a voice at work (sometimes literally).

It's a fascinating, funny and moving discussion about a career, with a happy ending as Clare discusses the fulfilment she has found in a different set of roles.

Also a shout out for the fantastic cover art that was designed for us by Bea Garrido. She's a really talented artist, who listened to what we wanted to do with the podcast and then stepped us through a series of concepts until we found the one we really liked. Thanks Bea.

Women twice as likely to have a mental heath condition in the workplace as men

Here's another video clip from If It's Hurting It's Not Working, our monthly podcast all about work - why we work, how we work and what makes a great job.

Emily points out that women are twice as likely to have a mental heath condition in the workplace as men and we chew over why that might be, with examples such as childcare, where the burden often falls unequally.

This is an extract from our episode about the Winter Blues.

Working at home can be a lonely business

Here's a video clip from our podcast If It's Hurting It's Not Working, where Emily talks about the loneliness of working at home. It's from our most recent episode where we discuss the Winter Blues.

You might consider the ability to work at home as a privilege, and in some ways it is, but when the UK Government instructed us to work from home if we could, it had an impact. It's one thing to have the option, but it can be hard to spend day after day in the same place with limited human contact, as Emily explains.

Winter Blues

Our February podcast episode is out and it features Emily and Richard talking about mental health and encouraging you to do the same thing.

Click here for the link to the podcast episode

If It's Hurting It's Not Working is our podcast all about work - why we work, how we work and what makes a great job. Follow us for new episodes each month.

This time Emily has chosen the theme and we're talking about the Winter Blues. It's cold, it's dark and we've been spending too much time shut up in our own homes. Timed to more or less coincide with Time To Talk Day 2022, we discuss our experience with mental health issues and how important it is to talk with someone else about what you're going through.

We really hope you find this a useful listen and that it provokes you to speak with colleagues, friends and family, either about your mental health or theirs.

And, should you need them, here are some links to sites with helpful resources:
Time To Talk
NHS
Mind
Mental Health Foundation
Mental Health UK

Who Wants To Be A CEO?

Ahead of our regular February episode, this week we've got a bonus episode for you of If It's Hurting It's Not Working, our podcast all about work - why we work, how we work and what makes a great job.

Click here to listen to the episode

An opportunity opened up for Emily and me to chat with our CEO Paul, who, as we've mentioned previously, has been very supportive of our podcast since it launched last autumn. We talk with Paul about his life and career, from his first job to his more recent ones, and he's given some ideas and tips for anyone considering the route to becoming an executive.

Along the way we revisit some of the themes from our earlier episodes and Paul highlights a time in his career when he discovered that, as our title goes, if it's hurting it's not working. Emily and I also talk about how we each got started in work. We successfully battle a fire alarm test and some other logistical challenges to bring you a fascinating and thought provoking discussion on what it takes to be a leader.

We've turned this episode around quickly because it gets to the heart of two big issues of the moment - leadership and accountability.

A New Leaf

Emily and I have produced another episode of our podcast If It's Hurting It's Not Working and this one is themed specially around New Year and the opportunities it brings for fresh starts and reinvention.

We talk about our own New Year's Resolutions or pledges and how best to ensure that you can stick with and achieve yours. We also talk about how to get more out of your job, whether that's by making small changes to what you currently do, or whether it's something more dramatic.

And we give practical examples from our own lives and careers of things that have gone well and not so well and the lessons we've learned from them.

Bad Christmas Jokes!

If anyone has wondered what it looks like when Emily Cleife and I record If It's Hurting It's Not Working - our podcast all about work - here's a video clip from the start of the Christmas episode.

Our podcast isn't all terrible jokes, though there have been a few; mostly my fault. There are also some serious moments, such as our discussions about Work / Life Balance and Mental Health at work, but overall we aim to make it an enjoyable listen and hope that the fun we have making it comes across.

Richard

Featured on Podbean

Today, and for this whole week, our podcast host Podbean is featuring If It's Hurting It's Not Working on their website and in their mobile app.

So in return, here's some promotion for them from Emily and me in a clip from our latest episode (below).

When you're starting a podcast there's a lot to think about. What's it going to be about? Who's going to listen to it? What's the right name? What cover art should you use and what music should you pick? So many creative decisions before you get near to actually recording and editing any episodes.

One thing you don't have to worry about when you choose Podbean as a host is all the technical stuff, like RSS feeds and bandwidth. You just have to upload the finished mp3 file, provide the cover art and description and Podbean does the rest.

Also there's lots of help and guidance for how to register your podcast with all the key players, like Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify, so people can find your podcast wherever they're looking.

And finally, Podbean offers you a try before you buy offer, with 30 days of free hosting. Nobody knows whether a podcast will be successful before it launches and this offer means you don't have hosting costs before it's clear whether you have an audience.

So if you're wanting to start your own podcast, go to https://www.podbean.com and use the code PODCAST21 to get your first thirty days of podcast hosting for free.

You can find our podcast here.

And you can find links to all our episodes from this site.

More Despatches from The Great Resignation

You may not be intending to leave your current employer. Like me, you may have decided that you want to reap more from the networks you've built up and the capital that you've gained with key stakeholders.

But that doesn't mean that you can't benefit from the phenomenon labelled The Great Resignation, where many people have decided to give new opportunities a go, whether for more money or a different challenge.

This article (The benefits of not joining the Great Resignation - BBC Worklife) suggests that now would be a great opportunity to ask for the things that would turn your current job into your ideal job. And what have you got to lose? Your employer can only say no, and while you probably won't get everything you want, you might get some of it.

Here's another article (Why 'stay interviews' are the next big trend of the Great Resignation) with a similar theme. If you perform an important role in your organisation, you may find that the balance of power has shifted a little in your favour.

Organisations are having to think about how they can hold onto their people (What Does It Take to Keep People Happy During the Great Resignation? Research Points to 5 Key Strategies). Of course it's always made sense to keep your best people happy in their work, but now the focus is on this more than ever.

Perhaps you can take this trend too far and you might discover that things haven't changed so much. It will be interesting to see who holds the balance of power in the potential stand-off suggested in this article (‘The Great Resignation’: Third of millennials say they’ll quit their job if they have to go to the office more), though whether this really needs to be a battle is unclear, especially with the latest Covid restrictions in the UK having changed the dial on the home v office debate once more.

In our podcast If It's Hurting It's Not Working, Emily and I discuss things you can do to make your job more rewarding and to find the right balance in your life. We've produced 4 episodes so far, including our latest episode that's Christmas-themed. Please join our conversation and let us know what you think.

A great combination

in this clip, Emily confesses to not having read the script that I wrote for the episode. While it's a funny moment, it's also an excellent illustration of our different approaches and how they combine effectively.

I feel like I perform best when I've prepared and I have a structured framework. I may not actually need the script, but the fact that it's there gives me confidence and I can improvise around it. But very early on when we started making podcasts together, we discovered that a script is a straitjacket for Emily and she doesn't give her best performance if it's scripted.

So we've settled somewhere in the middle, where I provide a framework for the discussion but it's a very broad outline and allows Emily all the space she needs to bring her spontaneity and her authentic voice to the discussion.

If I need a bit more to fall back on than that, I have separate notes that I can refer to as we're talking. Another advantage of that approach is that I can still surprise Emily in the discussion with something that I haven't signposted in the script (especially if she hasn't read it!). And some of the best moments in our podcasts have been the unexpected ones.

Lest you should leave this with the impression that Emily is just winging it, I can think of few people I've worked with who puts so much energy and effort into her work or who cares more about the result. Emily is passionate about making good podcasts, just like she wants to be effective in everything she does. And to do that she uses the method that works best for her.

You can hear the whole podcast episode here: It’s Christmas!

Richard