“We want you to be branch manager.” I hung up the phone, those out-of-the-blue words still ringing in my ears. It was 2006, and my department was being outsourced to another financial services company. And now apparently they needed a branch manager. I was thrilled - for a whole millisecond. Then the doubts started creeping ...
I promised myself (not just an in-the-air promise – an actual written down promise) that the next time I had a lull, I’d take a morning for myself. And here I am – almost all current deadlines met, book edits on the way but not here yet – doing just that. I’m getting my hair ...
What do you miss about life before kids? That was the question in an online discussion I read recently. Sleep. Free-time. Me-time. Money. Nights out. Lying-in. Tea that's not gone cold. Peeing alone. Not in any kind of "I wish I never had kids because I miss that hot tea so much" way. Just a list of things that we sometimes miss - if we're ...
Watching an episode of Mad Men recently, I found myself feeling every inch of what was taking place on screen. It wasn't about drinking Bourbon in the office and it wasn't about everyday sexism - it was about an office move. (For anyone who is still watching Mad Men, there are no major spoilers here, but ...
A year ago today, I walked out of my beloved office for the last time, switching from a 17 year career in financial services to the unknown world of freelance writing from home. I say 'beloved' without a hint of sarcasm - I loved my office very much. It was a slightly odd shape, but the ...
For seventeen years, I had an office uniform. Not a real uniform – just one that met the dress code of a typical office. For the first few years, the self-imposed uniform was mostly black-trousers-and-something, though I occasionally changed it up with grey trousers - just to add a splash of colour. My trousers were always too long ...
He's the busiest person in the office. Most of us know this person. He is always too busy to stop and talk. He must be important, because nobody could be that busy all the time and not be important. And whatever you do, don't ask him to take on anything else - can't you see he's already ...
So after four months of night-time working and day-time mammying, last week everything changed. For the first time, all three kids are in school and preschool, and I can work in the mornings. It's surreal to be at home when they're not here, and it's a little bit lonely to think they're not babies anymore, but it's exciting ...
Day 1 not in the office - Tuesday May 5th The kids were off school today, and it was a very normal day. I've had dozens of days like this, when I've taken annual leave during school holidays, and this didn't feel too different. No big "shock" moment. That's good. We went to the playground - they ran ...
I wrote this a few weeks ago, right after I told the kids that I was finishing up in my job: I've just had a very grown-up conversation with two relatively small girls. It's one I've been dreading - the "I'm going to be staying home from work from now on" announcement. In theory they should ...