Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
In my mid-20’s, as a full-time agency Planner, I thought I had my career all figured out – next stops Senior Planner (check), Head of Planning (check), then onto the Board. That last jump never happened. It turns out that it’s quite hard to juggle working 50 hours a week with caring responsibilities and also … Continue reading My aim: to do good work for nice people
Work/life balance is very important to me – I'm a part-timer for various reasons, but I also definitely do better strategic work when I’m more rested, less stressed and generally feeling in control of my life. Almost anyone who has worked in a decent sized agency will have experienced emails on Sundays, late nights at … Continue reading We have to get better at work/life balance – and pitches aren’t helping
1) We’re in the business of communication and persuasion, not putting-cool-stuff-on-screens (be they tv, pc or mobile). Making sure that the right message reaches the right people is what matters. Deciding which media is right for the job is vital – but the answer might just as easily be ‘supermarket car park experiential sampling’ as … Continue reading ten things everyone under 25 who works in agencies needs to know
There seems to be a movement in the marketing community towards better work-life balance. Whether it’s Chime’s Amelia Torode championing flexible and part-time working for Mums or what seems to be a massive increase in senior staff switching to freelance, it feels like the traditional 10+ hours, 5+ days a week agency model is under … Continue reading on allowing good people to work where and when they work best
I’ve been reading a lot about work-life balance recently, including this piece in Campaign (paywall, sorry) by Gail Gallie of Fallon London advocating a better deal for working mums in the ad industry and this enormous essay in Atlantic Magazine by Anne-Marie Slaughter (the former director of policy planning at the US State Department) about … Continue reading all of AdLand needs better work/life balance – not just working mums
Since I got into this whole working-for-myself lark, the line between work and leisure has got rather blurred. I now have the flexibility to, say, take Friday off to go and watch a horse show, then catch up with my invoicing on Saturday evening. The thing that worries me is that when I send out … Continue reading Does your work life have an OFF switch?
I just read a great post from Drew McLellan on the blurring of boundaries between our home and work lives. Its not exactly a hot new trend, but an incredibly important one. To my mind, its not just that our personal lives are being invaded by work - in return our working lives are having … Continue reading blurring boundaries