You may have been told you're "just a really nice person". You're the one who says yes before checking your diary. Who apologises when someone else bumps into you. Who can sense a change in someone's mood from across the room and has already started adjusting before anyone has said a word. People describe this as kindness, and sometimes it is. But if saying no makes your stomach drop, if you rehearse messages for an hour to make sure they won't upset anyone, or if you feel st

Every organisation has one. The person who just gets it done. They reply quickly, they remember the thing from the meeting three weeks ago, they pick up what falls between the cracks and they never make a fuss about it. Managers love this person. Colleagues love this person. Frankly, the whole team would struggle to function without this person. Which is exactly why I'd be a little worried about them. One woman that comes to my mind as I write this blog was an operations mana

There is a particular kind of workplace message that always makes me pause. Please remember to prioritise your wellbeing. It usually arrives with good intentions. Sometimes there’s a reminder about the EAP, perhaps a link to a wellbeing resource, an encouragement to take proper breaks and switch off at the end of the day. Then you look at the reality of the working culture. People eat lunch at their desks. Senior leaders send emails late into the evening. Someone who leaves o

There is absolutely nothing wrong with yoga. I feel I should establish that fairly early, before somebody from HR sends me a strongly worded email. Yoga can be wonderful. So can mindfulness, exercise, breathwork, lunchtime walks, resilience training, EAP support, coaching and occasionally remembering to eat something that didn’t come out of a vending machine between meetings. The problem starts when these things are offered as the answer to a problem they were never designed