Author: neil

Flu-like symptoms – not CoVID, we tested – have hit the household this week. It’s taken out some of our usual walks, and some of my morning routines as well, given I’m now mum and dad both for the kids who have started going back to school. And this evening, I’m beginning to feel a little sore too; hopefully nothing a stiff brandy concoction and a good night’s sleep won’t fix.

This week I’ve had multiple people tell me about more serious, life-threatening illness that have affected them or their immediate family.

Everything suddenly is in sharper focus – what were high priorities fade away into the background as noise, and who/what is really important and was sometimes unfortunately relegated to another day some time in the future is front and center. Nothing else really matters.

Making sure the important remain important every single day. Life live as if every day were your last. Treat everyone else as if it was their last.

For the last few weeks, I’ve regularly received notifications and messages about people leaving the company. Some were leaving because their roles were made redundant. Others were leaving for opportunities elsewhere. Some others had come to the conclusion that they were done with ‘work’.

I know most of them well. Before the pandemic, I would make the opportunity to talk to people, hear their story, and learn what they did or what made them tick. Being cooped up at home for the last 18 months or so, on a common communication platform at work, meant I could quite easily call and talk virtually. Some were eager to converse. Others chose to ignore. Both were perfectly acceptable responses given the circumstances.

Something I’ve come to observe – by no means a scientific analysis – is every one who’s reached out to tell me of their departure has a new sense of purpose. Or hope. Or acceptance. I sense it in the way they write or the emotion in their voice or the twinkle in their eyes.

I came across an article today on hope, serendipitously it appears. The title was “Hope is the antidote to helplessness”. The

 

The wind picked up again this evening, carrying pollen everywhere – and with it the sniffles. With the CoVID everywhere, anyone with hayfever symptoms now needs a test to rule CoVID out before getting any treatment, unless of course you carry a stock of management medication.

How do organisations respond to symptoms? Do default habits of its human inhabitants take over? How about in these days of the pandemic, when most executives seem to roll in their own bubble, while those on the frontlines have little hope that the real problem will ever reach the eyes/ears/attention of those execs?  Working from home has probably exacerbated the issue too.

Anne Helen Petersen’s recent newsletter on the subject of the ‘back to the office’ made for an interesting reading today too.

Looks like the problems are all over the shop.

So are opportunities.

PS: And very likely the writing today too, reflecting my current state of mind. I’m okay with it.