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Tag: Work-life balance

  • Opinion: Stuart Thomson on work-life balance

    Stuart Thomson

     

    Many people come to think about the balance between their personal ‘work life’ and their ‘personal life’ later in a career. That should be a consideration from the start. But it also means appreciating that the two cannot often be neatly divided or evenly balanced.

     

    The idea of a work-life balance appears to suggest some type of equilibrium between the two. It also often places the burden on the individual to draw the lines between the work and the personal. Actually, most employers rightly recognise the benefits to themselves and the individual if the balance is considered. Personal health and productivity can improve, and the level of job satisfaction increases. If you feel as though you are being looked after, then the longer you may even stay in the role.

     

    Considerations about a form of balance should not, though, be left until later in a career. It is not just about the ability to spend time with children and families or focusing on leisure pursuits to counteract aging!

     

    Often the balance can entail quite serious commitments in the personal realm, for instance, those with caring responsibilities. Those responsibilities can impact anyone at any age.

    It is also up to each person what their time looks like outside of the workplace. It cannot, of course, clash with the day job or bring any form of potential reputational damage, but otherwise, the time is yours to do with what you will. That could be study, having a ‘side hustle,’ taking up a hobby, or finishing a box set—whatever works for you.

     

    That does not mean that a workday can be neatly divided. For many workplaces, especially in a professional setting, there is not really a 9-5. That requires flexibility on both the part of the employee and the employer. It becomes clear that the balance between work and life cannot be neatly divided and compartmentalised. For those with pressing commitments, such as caring, arrangements can be made, but for the majority, sometimes you will work ‘late,’ and there will be periods of intense work and potentially pressure. This cannot be avoided. Whilst employers recognise the need for everyone to think about their relationship between home and work, that does not mean the employee has all the control. There is often a lack of balance, and especially in the early years of a career, it will be weighted in favour of the employer.

     

    How can each individual think about setting some dividing lines from the outset?

     

    Boundaries – The UK hasn’t yet gone down the legislative route for a ‘right to switch off,’ but many firms have. There is no harm in having conversations with line managers about such matters.

    Time management – The better organised a person is in the workplace, the better able they are to finish their work on time and move onto the personal.

    Co-existence – There is no reason why some of the personal and professional cannot overlap. If, for instance, a class is during the workday, then as long as the work is done, the class could still be attended. A balance does not mean complete separation.

    Personal health – The critical role of physical and mental health is now largely uncontested in the workplace, so explore the opportunities for these from the outset. Do not leave it until later.

    Timesheet culture – For many organisations, the quality of the work is more important than the time spent at a desk. But for some organisations, particularly in professional services, they can expect both. It may be that this is reflected in the pay packet, but think about what you want from the outset.
    Never fall into the trap of thinking that there is any such thing as a perfect balance between work life and personal life. Especially early on, the boundaries can be extremely unclear. You may socialise with colleagues as well as work alongside them. That is an important part of building a culture—but is that ‘work’ or ‘personal’? It is both.

     

    It is important to think about what balance in life looks like rather than expecting an equilibrium to be achieved. Never leave that thinking too late.

     

    Stuart Thomson

     

    Stuart Thomson’s latest book is The Company and the Activist

     

  • Tom Pauk: Meet the Mentor

    Finito World caught up with Finito Education’s likeable and passionate senior mentor, Tom Pauk

     

    Tell us about your career before you joined Finito.

     

    After studying drama, my efforts to become an actor ended with a whimper rather than a bang, and I retrained as a solicitor. The career that followed was a “game of two halves”, half-time marked by the global financial crisis of 2007-08. In the first half, at City law firm Allen & Overy, then in-house at American bank Citigroup, I’d specialised in large cross-border lending transactions.

    In the second, I helped restructure loans borrowers had taken out in more prosperous times but were now struggling to repay. After leaving the bank in 2017, I began mentoring young men in prison, returned to Allen & Overy, now in a role mentoring lawyers in the early stages of their careers, and began writing plays. My professional life, it seems, had come full circle!

     

    Did you feel your education prepared you for the workplace?

     

    A degree in drama could not have prepared me better for the cut and thrust of commercial law, an above-all collaborative endeavour with a diverse cast list of characters, long “rehearsals” with unfeasible deadlines we somehow always managed to meet. At the conclusion of an especially high-profile deal there was the added satisfaction of reading the “reviews” in the financial press.

    The practise of law is essentially an exercise in problem-solving. In my case, a love of modern languages and playing the violin had also prepared me for the intellectual rigour of law, and I was even able to use my mother tongue Hungarian in transactions with Hungarian clients. So to anyone reading this wondering whether a knowledge of an obscure language might prove useful one day, the answer is a resounding Yes!

     

    Did you benefit from mentorship during your career?

     

    When I’d started out, mentoring was still very much in its infancy. Fortunately, I was able to benefit from the law firm equivalent, the “seat” system, under which trainee solicitors move from one department (or seat) to another every few months to build up expertise in different areas of a firm’s practise. Each seat is supervised by a senior lawyer — part mentor, supervisor and critical friend — overseeing a trainee’s professional development.

    Over the course of my training contract I was exposed to a variety of mentoring styles, which then shaped my own approach when I assumed the role. But I continue to benefit from ongoing, less formal mentoring in the shape of the extraordinary people I encounter and who inspire me with their wisdom. So in actual fact I’ve never really stopped being mentored.

     

    What are the most common misconceptions about a career in the law?

     

    I think there’s a general (mis)perception that law is a dry, bookish occupation, and that lawyers are aloof from the rest of society, be they pin-striped solicitors in their ivory towers or wigged-up barristers bowing obsequiously in courtrooms. In fact lawyers are widely dispersed throughout society, in the public sector (civil service, local authorities, regulatory bodies), in companies and banks, charities and NGOs. If you’re a young person considering a career in law you’ll be able to select from a wide range of specialisations that play to your unique skills and interests.

     

    Mental health is a particular passion of yours. Can you describe how your interest in that area came about?

     

    There were occasions, especially early on in my career, when my mental health was impacted under the pressure of work. Symptoms included poor sleep, high anxiety and irritability, and a compulsion for checking work emails 24/7. Back then, there was a stigma around discussing one’s mental health, let alone seeking help when you needed it. Worse, it was regarded as a sign of weakness, possibly even career-limiting, to self-disclose. So one’s natural instinct was simply to keep quiet and soldier on.

    Thankfully, we’ve evolved to a more enlightened view of wellbeing in the workplace, with a plethora of interventions designed to promote a healthy mind as well as body, including mental health first aiders, mindfulness, and discouraging staff from checking work emails after hours. Eight years ago, the memory of my own experience led me to train as a volunteer at a mental health charity. At The Listening Place I’ve seen vividly for myself how poor mental health can quickly escalate into crisis, and how being truly listened to can be life-saving. Literally.

     

    Work-life balance is something you’ve been vocal about. What are the most common pitfalls people fall into there?

     

    Most people understand the importance of achieving a sensible work-life balance, at least intellectually,  And it’s hard to argue against. But here’s the challenge: we’re not necessarily aware of the pendulum as it is swinging in the wrong direction. Whether it’s staying ever-later in the office, checking, or worse, responding to emails at weekends  (“because it’s already tomorrow in Tokyo”), before we know it life is work and work is life. Of course we tell ourselves that it’s only temporary, that as soon as we’ve broken the back of whatever it is we’ll take our foot off the accelerator.

    But it isn’t that simple, for we may unwittingly have recalibrated our benchmark of what a normal working day is. We’ve trapped ourselves into believing our own indispensability (“If I don’t do it no-one else will). We assume that working harder improves performance, demonstrates commitment to our employer and enhances our prospects for promotion. I’d counsel anyone reading this to challenge these assumptions and to listen out closely for the whirring of your inner pendulum!

     

    You obviously have a passion for mentoring. What are the most common challenges you’re seeing among your current crop of mentees?

     

    I’m certainly seeing the longer-term impact of the pandemic. This is the generation whose educations, family and social lives were disrupted by successive lockdowns. And I’m in awe of just how well they’d adapted to remote ways of studying and working. Another challenge is the sheer number of high-calibre applicants vying for limited places on the graduate recruitment schemes of investment banks, accountancy firms and corporations. Training contracts in City law firms are similarly over-subscribed, and with increasing candidates achieving top grades there’s now a far greater reliance on critical reasoning and situational judgement tests, presentations, written assignments and long assessment days.

    However I’m also sensing some really positive new trends, with mentees less motivated by achieving huge salaries than they are by finding a fulfilling career. And finally, one positive legacy of the pandemic: Finito mentees are often engaged in volunteering activities, whether it’s repurposing old computers and teaching older people how to use them, mentoring disadvantaged kids, or stacking boxes in foodbanks. Something, finally, to celebrate in challenging times.

     

    Do you vary your process for each mentee, or do you have a particular approach which you use with each candidate?

     

    Mentoring is a transformative tool for supporting the development of a mentee, and because no two mentees are the same the mentoring process does inevitably vary. Having said that, there are common features in my approach.  In the first place, it’s not about the mentor. Our prime responsibility as mentors is to listen attentively at all times to our mentees. Listening actively (as distinct from merely hearing) is a skill that one develops with practice.

    And it’s crucial we’re responsive to the stated needs of our mentees rather than clinging stubbornly to our own agendas. One unique aspect of mentoring is our willingness to share our own knowledge and experience to support the development of our mentees. A word of caution however, because this has nothing to do with being directive. What we’re aiming to do is empower our mentees to think and act for themselves. Finally, mentoring is a two-way street. At its most fruitful the relationship between mentor and mentee is one in which sharing and learning opportunities arise for both participants. I’m forever learning from my mentees.

     

    What do you know now in your career which you wish you’d known at its start?

     

    Hindsight being a wonderful thing of course, here’s three things I tell my mentees. Firstly, it’s important to pace yourself, especially when starting out in a new role and you’re trying to make a good impression. Keep something of yourself in reserve for when you really need it. Secondly, don’t plot out your entire career from the get-go. Life has a mischievous habit of opening new doors and leading you in new directions. And thirdly, know where you add most value, and focus your energies accordingly.

     

    Do you have any new challenges on the horizon?

     

    I’m excited to have just been appointed to the board of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, whose endowment supports people tackling the root causes of conflict and injustice. Along with my governance responsibilities, I’ll also be involved in grant-making decisions, an area entirely new to me.

     

  • Class Dismissed: Richard Desmond

    Richard Desmond, the successful publisher and founder of the Health Lottery on the next generation, the success of OK! magazine – and not switching off

     

    Tell us a little about your upbringing. What do you think parents would say if they could see your success today?

    Look, I think they’d be incredibly proud. My father was the managing director of a cinema advertising chain Pearl & Dean and he used to take me to meetings. I have been in a lot of interesting meetings since; I can tell you that.

     

    You left school at 15 and have fought your way to the top. Do you think the university system has become less successful at preparing young people for the workplace?

     

    Universities are good for some students – but I reckon they’re not always right if you want to start a business. Parents are better off carefully thinking about what kind of offspring they have: don’t just send them to university if they have entrepreneurial flair.

     

    Did you have a mentor in your early days of business?

     

    Yes, but I always made my own decisions. I have tried to inspire the next generation and tell them when they are wrong. The main reason people fail in business is just that – lack of clarity of purpose.

     

    What advice would you give to young people today looking to start their own businesses? 

     

    It is tough out there and the sooner you realise that the better. You need resilience, the ability to sell and to champion your purpose – I can tell you that business is also a hell of a lot of fun when you win.

     

    Why do you think OK! ended up surpassing Hello! in the market?

     

    We were in tune with the markets: people wanted out product and we knew it. That meant that we were able to live and breathe it, knowing that with the right we would be successful. I also think we invested in the right features: never underestimate the value of good editorial – and when you see a good story, put your money behind it.

     

    How do you feel about Sir Keir Starmer’s administration? 

     

    He claims to be the party of wealth creation. It is probably better for me not to say anything just yet, although I am known for my expletives. Sometimes the wisest course of action is for me to try and remain silent.

     

    What did the writing of The Real Deal teach you about yourself and your past career?

     

    No doubt about it – most absorbing experience of my life. I remember being very busy writing it. It’s a fascinating experience to draw it all together – the threads of your life. Some of my best friends and worst adversaries told me that they couldn’t put it down.

     

    The Health Lottery is a passion of yours. What community projects are you most proud of having supported because of this initiative?

     

    I’ve a very simple philosophy on this. Don’t do anything you’re not proud of. I don’t believe in going into any project without believing absolutely in its importance.

     

    How do you switch off from work? 

     

    I never switch off – the lights never go out here!

     

    What is your legacy and how would you like to be remembered? 

     

    It is far too soon to be thinking about that. However, allow me look back with great pride for my own part in ensuring the Battle of Britain Monument which I helped get built against all the odds!

     

     

     

  • Study shows best, worst countries to freelance

    Patrick Crowder

    The freelance life is longed for my many, achieved by some, and not desired at all by others. If you like structure, stability, and clearly set tasks, then freelancing is probably not for you. However, if you wish to benefit from the creative freedom, variable schedule, and healthy work-life balance that freelancing can provide, then it is important to know what opportunities await you around the world.

    The financial tech company Tide has drawn up a list of the top ten countries for freelancers based on a variety of factors: cost and speed of broadband, legal rights for freelancers, cost of living, gender pay gap data, searches for freelance work and availability of co-working spaces per 100,000 people, and the happiness index.

    Singapore won the top spot on the list due to fast, affordable internet and numerous co-working spaces, though it leaves a bit to be desired in the cost of living and happiness index departments. New Zealand came in a very close second, with its advantages being strong legal protections for workers, a good happiness index score, and equality of pay.

    In third place, Spain is much more affordable than the other top countries and has a low gender pay gap. However, it may not have the same breadth of opportunity in the freelance sector as other countries.

    The rest of the list is fairly close-matched, with the main deterministic points being cost of living and searches for freelance jobs. In order, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Switzerland, Lithuania, Sweden, and Ireland make up the remaining seven spots. 

    Tide also found the worst countries for freelancing. Japan had the lowest score due to few legal protections for workers, low interest in freelancing, and a problematic gender pay gap in many industries. China was named second-worst due to a poor happiness index score and little interest in freelance work, though it is affordable. Italy was next, primarily due to slow internet speeds and weak legal protections in the country.

    The Netherlands showed the highest interest in freelancing, with 1,305 searches made for freelance workers per 100,000 people. Denmark took the top spot on the happiness index, and India was first for affordability.

    Wherever you choose to work in the world, freelancing is never free of its faults, but for many, the freedoms afforded to freelancers outweigh the instability that they can sometimes face. Additionally, one of the lower-ranked countries on this list could end up being the perfect fit for you depending on your field and preferred style of living and working. Therefore, take this as a guide to assist in your research, not determine your future home. By recognising the advantages and disadvantages of each location and comparing them to what your personal preferences and expectations are, you may be able to find your dream freelance destination.

     

    Read about how Georgia Heneage navigated the world of freelancing during the pandemic here

  • Fiona Millar on our hidden mental health crisis in the workplace

    Fiona Millar on our hidden mental health crisis in the workplace

    It’s really hard living with someone with mental health issues. I remember days when I would sit at my desk and think: “I just can’t do this.” But looking back now, it’s one of the things that made me resilient: I know that I can put one foot in front of the other no matter what. 

    One of the things I’ve always thought about Alistair’s mental health is that once he stopped drinking, he transferred his dependency, and his self-medication became work: he threw himself into that to stop himself addressing the deeper problems. He could perform at a very high level in the workplace – but then he’d come home and struggle and I would bear the brunt of that. 

    It was astonishing. We worked together at Downing Street during the Blair administration and I’d see him be amusing, engaging and charismatic with people – but then at home, he’d be good with the kids, but with me he’d crash. I’ve now started doing meetings with other people who live with those suffering mental health problems and it’s very common: people live with fear of what their friends will say, or else they feel responsible as if the problem originates with them.

    In fact, 99.9 per cent of the time it’s nothing to do with you at all. People who are mentally ill can be quite manipulative, and gaslighting is very common. Initially, I just thought Alistair was quite a difficult personality and it wasn’t until he was formally diagnosed that I was really able to say he had mental health issues. 

    Of course, during lockdown people’s working situations have been very unusual – and some people haven’t had any work because they’re self-employed in creative industries. But in general I’d say that people tend to use work as a way to take themselves out of a situation, because if your partner has mental health problems, you have to find things for yourself, otherwise you can get consumed by the other person’s illness. Work is quite a solace – although for the person actually suffering from mental health, often they can’t cope with going to work.

    Alistair was very lucky to be able to work 28 years, even though he was seriously ill, and Tony Blair was always very accommodating. Not all employers are, and there are some toxic workplaces out there. For employers who want to make the workplace a friendly environment, they need to ask themselves not only how they actually do it – but more, how do they do it on a consistent basis?

    That has to begin in an organisation’s leadership – to treat other people as you wish to be treated yourself. You’ve got to do more than talk the talk. If an employee comes to you with a family problem or a mental health concern you have to do all you can to accommodate it.

    It’s too early to say whether there’s any mental health washing in companies, as mental health has only really been a hot topic during the pandemic. What’s concerned me during Covid-19 is the way in which managers closed their office as a cost-cutting device. That was fine in the beginning – people thought it was fantastic to be working from home. But I’ve noticed of late that a lot of younger people aren’t living in particularly convenient circumstances and the novelty has worn off. Working all day in your bedroom isn’t great. It’s not healthy to have a remote relationship with your employer who, after all, is meant to be responsible for your well-being: that means there’s currently a lot of hidden mental health problems in the workplace. 

    I’m all in favour of flexible work – especially for families – but we need to get people back to some sort of physical relationship with the people they work with, otherwise we’ll see casualties from this. People started off not wanting to come to the office and now they kind of want to come back. Managing that is going to be very important, and we’re probably at the crunch point now.

    But by creating this online support group, we’ve hit on a very simple model. There’s no real cost involved, and we’ve got people coming from across the country to our group. At the moment, we’ve limited our numbers to ten or 12, and we’d like to expand it into local communities. This could be tacked onto existing organisations, and I’m hopeful we can do that. 

    To discuss mental health issues with Fiona Millar, tweet her on the Twitter handle @schooltruth

  • The Poet at Work VI: Gareth Writer-Davies

    The Poet at Work VI: Gareth Writer-Davies

    This week we feature the brilliant Welsh poet Gareth Writer-Davies. Gareth was a Hawthornden fellow in 2019 and has been repeatedly recognised for his rich, witty and reliably enjoyable poetry. As ever, we produce his work poems, kindly written for Finito World, after the Q&A.

    Tell us about the relationship between your work and your poetry.

    I would say that my various careers have given me structure, an ability to hit a deadline. Serious artists and writers know that you need to “turn up” so that if inspiration hits you have the tools to hand whether that be an easel and brushes or pen and paper. And of course the workplace provides material, not only in the people and tasks but also in the idiosyncratic jargon and sometimes the locales. I’m a big fan of poets keeping themselves engaged in other work, it makes the brain take diversions and supplies contrasting stimuli. Whether the work be a library or bank or steel mill (all places where poets have earnt their money whilst continuing to write) a writer should be part of the world wherein the people dwell.  

    Conversely, what role did your love of poetry have in giving you confidence in the workplace? 

    I always felt confident in my written work and that I can make myself understood. It also helped me to put the workplace into perspective in a way that perhaps a deeply religious person might also. Work is not nothing; it takes but it also gives and to have something beyond what might be quite a mundane series of tasks provides motivation as well as ptting food on the table! 

    The government has recently said that poetry should be optional at the GCSE level – a significant demotion in its importance on the curriculum. What is your view on that and what do you feel the impact will be?

    I don’t think is a good idea. Especially when we are surrounded by so much poetry in the form of lyrics, rap and even advertising; whilst not everything in a poem should be studied to death (the feel of a poem, something that is not quite defineable is part of its purpose and charm) these forms need to be unpacked and understood in terms of motivation and where they are leading us. These are good brain tonics, experiments in form that enhance structural thinking and teach us empathy for others. These are important in all jobs and are too important to discard.    

    Was there a particular teacher when you were younger who turned you onto poetry?

    I did not come from a bookish household, so I had to be something of a self starter. I had relatives who as working class  Welshmen would take their turn at a family gathering to recite poetry they had written, my Uncle Edwin being particularly good. He was a milkman and a teacher to me. In school there were several teachers who inspired, introducing me to Eliot, Shakespeare and Milton; their example of keeping the faith in poetry was important to me.  

    What’s your favourite poem about the workplace?

    Filling Station by Elizabeth Bishop

    WORK 

    I’ve made up mortar and laid bricks
    I wrote a poem in couplets

    I’ve torn down trees and planted seeds
    I plucked a metaphor from weeds

    I’ve tried journalism 
    I used my imagination

    I’ve been a salesman of many things
    I know meaning

    I’ve taught class and been taught a lesson
    I continue my education

    I’ve worn uniforms and three-layer masks
    I stick to my task

    These are a few of my occupations 
    They gave me this poem

    GARDENING WITH A CHAINSAW

    I wanted to tell her that chainsaws rarely work 
    spending ninety per cent of their time 

    being fed oil, the torque strengthened

    the plug scraped free of soot and the chain adjusted


    only then
    do the wood chips fly like confetti

    as trees kiss the vertical goodbye 
    waving, swaying, then crashing to the shagpile forest floor  

    the desire to cut and chop, make something from the wild
    lingers


    we gather cabbage tops, think on the big gesture of a copse
    projects 

    passed on 

    like a half-built shed or a thrown bouquet


    the chainsaw bides its time as it leaks upon the shelf   
    teeth grinding 

    upon the oily tongue of blade
    like a bull who’s just seen a cow

    I curate a smile, turn the key in the lock 

    walk out into the sudden garden of quiet devastation

  • Opinion: It’s time to try the four-day working week

    Opinion: It’s time to try the four-day working week

    Patrick Crowder

    Nicola Sturgeon has promised a four-day work week for Scotland if the Scottish National Party is re-elected in May. This announcement came alongside promises of increased NHS funding, free dentistry, and another referendum on Scottish independence. 

    The pandemic has raised questions about the need for the traditional office, as well as concerns about a healthy work-life balance. 

    The SNP manifesto, which was published yesterday, states that “Covid-19 changed the way we work almost overnight,” and that the party wants “to do more to support people (to) achieve a healthy work-life balance.”

    According to his spokesperson, Boris Johnson currently “has no plans” to introduce a decreased work week in the UK. 

    Looking to history, the four-day week follows a trend in decreasing hours which dates back to the industrial revolution. Before the 1920s, workers often laboured for over 70 hours a week. Henry Ford’s introduction of the 40-hour, five-day work week at his factories laid the foundation for the schedule we operate on today. 

    With so many people now working from home, many have noticed that their jobs take significantly less time than their traditional hours allowed for. This does not necessarily mean that people waste time at work purposefully, but instead it could point to increased productivity in a less stressful environment.

    A 2013 Stanford study showed that productivity at a Chinese travel agency rose by 13% when employees were allowed to work from home at least one day a week. Through employee satisfaction surveys, that same study also showed that employees were happier when they worked from home. Even if Britain is not ready to take Fridays off completely, this shows that productivity can be increased with just one fewer day in the office.

    Spain recently became the latest country to trial the four-day working week. Companies which take part will operate on 32 hours a week and receive funding from the government to avoid lowering employees’ wages. If Spain’s experiment proves effective, it will force other countries to reconsider their own working practices going forward.

    Spain will spend about £44 million on the program, while the SNP promises to “establish a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a four-day working week.”

    The shift towards a four-day work week differs from the “compressed” work schedule already offered by some employers across the UK. Rather than decrease hours with no pay cut, a compressed schedule redistributes normal hours across fewer days. 

    A 2018 study into the causes of work impairment conducted at an Australian mining company found that stress was a major cause of lack of productivity. Out of 893 employees, 375 reported that they felt stressed at work, and over 20% of stressed employees reported that they needed to take at least one day off work in the past month. 

    Criticisms of the compressed schedule include increased stress, rushed work, and increased pressure from employers to complete the same volume of work in a shorter time period. We know that employees work more productively in lower stress environments, so it is important to make sure that efforts to free people from the five-day week are not counterproductive.

    The foundation of our working schedule has remained essentially stagnant for 100 years. As times change with automation, faster computing, and the ability to work from home, it is time to establish a new standard of work which will benefit both employer and employee.

    The success or failure of this new model will fundamentally change the way we think about work, and soon the Friday productivity slump may be a thing of the past.

    —————————————————————————————————————-

    Australian mining study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6339264/

    Stanford work from home study: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/does-working-home-work-evidence-chinese-experiment

    Photo credit:  Krisztina Papp on Unsplash

  • The Poet at Work IV: Omar Sabbagh

    The Poet at Work IV: Omar Sabbagh

    In the latest in our series focussing on poetry and the workplace, Omar Sabbagh discusses how his work as a university professor has impacted on his creativity

    As a university teacher I am fortunate in the kind of work my profession demands.  My vocation as a writer, critical or creative, is where my personal hopes and projects and overall wished-for trajectory lie with most force. But I have often been inspired to write from out of the milieu of my day-job.  

    Working in education educates the educator, you might say, in more ways than in just the way any work educates.  In a sense, this has always been part of academic professions: a lecture and its reception can spur a new inkling for an academic article, or lead to a new insight.  There are, in fact, many examples in my own life-experience of this happening. Here, for example, is a poem written quite swiftly after teaching a class on Plato:

    White Noise

    Strange to say it, but I’ve a nose for such things,

    Smelling the whiteness, greenness, and so on…



    I teach Plato, for instance, and the platonic folly

    Of seeing that you see, the light, the lightest worry,


    And I dance across the stage of the dapper class

    Raging wrongs, kinds of error, lessening in kindness,


    And I dance like the eye does / like the other one,

    Too, where two eyes make one, make two, make


    That seam that seams like with like, with unlike.

    And with unlike, I teach my pupils to grow, blacker

     

    And blacker, till they return to their origin of white.

    I’ve a nose for such things, though it’s strange to say it.

    And the white noise, and the white noise muddles along

    To the middle of the flesh that meets the dark laughter.  


    Work comes bearing gifts.  And you don’t have to have enjoyed Seamus Heaney’s ‘Digging’, to know that cultivating work with the pen can be just as nourishing as agriculture. But at the same time, one can also recognize the truth in the old romantic myth of ‘the tree of idleness.’  

    The romantic notion here is that truly creative work is not actually ‘work.’  That artists are born not made.  Under this mythography, the muse visits capriciously and the poet must be readied for that caprice.  And to be readied for that caprice means not to be doing anything else but waiting.  There is probably truth to this because idleness, rather than rigorous diligence, allows for more contingencies to pile up, and then for those to become actuated.  

    I’ve often found there’s a delayed reward to work. Often you read around a topic to seemingly little effect at the time.  But ten years later you might happen to be working on something to which the older work suddenly contributes, leading to its success.  I think this lesson is applicable in all our work lives.  If you work in a company which involves, say, the cultivating of contacts it can happen that eight years later, three companies on, perhaps the fortuitousness of having cultivated certain relationships which bore no profit whatsoever at the time, becomes in hindsight the centre of a sudden present success.  Scientists also find that a play of the imagination – whereby inventions and hypotheses are made without any immediate fruit – can later turn out to be the source of a new technology or line of research and development.  

    Play is at the heart of progress of whatever sort – and imagination is constructive, not merely fanciful. It is part of seeing well, and that’s just as relevant to an Einstein or a Keynes or a Bill Gates, as to people like me. In an essay criticizing quantitative trends in the adjudication of the fruitfulness of ‘academic’ work, Stefan Collini writes:

    Publication in the humanities is, therefore, not always a matter of communicating ‘new findings’ or proposing a ‘new theory.’  It is often the expression of the deepened understanding which some individual has acquired, through much reading, discussion, and reflection, on a topic which has been in some senses ‘known’ for many generations.[1]

    I like the way Collini correctly highlights that ‘newness’ is not a given, or even something immediately at hand.  

    My poem ‘More’ was also written very swiftly. The poem opens up into another way in which work might impact on writing – how one’s marriage, and the relationship of your spouse to work, might alter what you write.  It doesn’t have much to do with gender in this case, but rather with the interface of different temperaments – the idle (myself) and the industrious (the beloved in this poem).  And I suppose the moral of this poem is that those who won’t countenance the felicities of idleness, may end up feeling more fruitless than they otherwise would.  In this sense, idleness may seem from the poet’s perspective like a kind of health-giving temperance – a living with the let-live.  


    More


    For Faten


    You look to a spot that’s taken by a star

    Because there’s so much more

    You could be doing,


    And so much more, the air above, beneath your

    Wings; and more – in lists I cannot bring

    To cornicing, polish, finishing.

    You’ve a dark-browed hunger more

    Like anger – but possessed, too

    At times, of a simpler, lighter hue;


    But when the missed ambition strikes

    You look at me, busied in my blue

    Music, and decide to mar


    The day with your temper: tics,

    My love, I’ve gotten used to.

     

    Omar Sabbagh is a widely published poet, writer and critic.  His latest books are: Reading Fiona Sampson: A Study in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics (Anthem Press, 2020); To My Mind or Kinbotes: Essays on Literature (Whisk(e)y Tit, 2021).  Morning Lit: Portals After Alia is forthcoming in early 2022 with Cinnamon Press.  Currently, he teaches at the American University in Dubai (AUD), where he is Associate Professor of English.

    [1]Stefan Collini, ‘Against Prodspeak: “Research” in the Humanities’, in English Pasts: Essays in History and Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 243.

  • The Poet at Work III: Christopher Hamilton-Emery

    The Poet at Work III: Christopher Hamilton-Emery

    Continuing our regular series, we spoke to former Salt director Christopher Hamilton-Emery about juggling life as a publisher, with his work as a poet.

    Christopher Hamilton-Emery was born in Manchester in 1963. He studied sculpture, painting and printmaking at Manchester College of Art and Design before taking a degree in graphics at Leeds Polytechnic, graduating in 1986. Emery has published three collections of poetry, as well as a writer’s guide, an anthology of art and poems, and pocket editions of Emily Brontë, Keats and Rossetti. His work has been widely published in magazines and anthologised. He lives in Cromer, North Norfolk, with his wife and children.

    Until recently, Hamilton-Emery was the director of Salt Publishing, and there is a sense in which he has given so much of his time to other authors – Luke Kennard, Xan Brooks and Sian Hughes are among those who much to thank him for – that his own work may be somewhat underestimated. Recently he left his role at Salt to start a new role as Director of Operations at Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk.

    For Finito World, Hamilton-Emery has written a remarkable poem ‘And Then We’. By telling details we are transported to another time and place – a world of ‘bound flax sail cloth’, ‘would dyed with kermis’ and a ‘tangled feast of eels’. This poem asks us to wonder what deeper meaning our work has and it demands that we imagine our way back into the shared past. It could only have been written by a poet with a profound sense of meaning, and moral duty. It shows a poet at the top of his form, whose strength is to have found a new lease of life in his work.

    As ever, we print an interview with the poet after the poem itself.

    And Then We

    And then we embraced, sprawling on the green deck like scattered gulls.

    And then we knelt under bound flax sail cloth, stinking and making the day.

    And then we carried whom could not stand to the red chapel blithely.

    And then we walked through your pristine marsh without hours or love or trees.

    And then we drew about us buckram cloth and wool dyed with kermes and slept.

    And then we pierced cockleshells and yearned for a tangled feast of eels.

    And then we walked by sordid wolves and boars in corporal torment.

    And then we met with hirsute leather brigands and were lost.

    And then we starved, Lord, and knew concupiscence, gnawing your works.

    And then we heralded salt wind, seal routes and spectres and walked dully on.

    And then we saw your slipper chapel and spread our toes on a mile of stones.

    And then we wept. At the ruin of our bodies we wept. At our just ruin.

    And then we dressed and swayed, all the same, through the unifying street in a love queue.

    And then we bent and entered Nazareth to see her and to know her choice.

    And then we knew a high permanent land, our eyes fixed on accommodating angels.

    And then we fell in stone-sealed Walsingham, with our fiat ringing, unanchored, teeming.

    And then we left to see ice oak burials, flame drift farms, our backwards night talk blazing.

    And then we sailed on, working new bones, each a prayer to the star of the sea.

    Interview

    You’re rare in that you’ve managed to be both a high-functioning poet and businessman – two skills that don’t always go together in the same person! What is the relationship between poetry and work like for you? Is it antagonistic or fruitful?

    At one level work simply pays for my writing life, or at least the space to have a writing life, though this wasn’t always the case. I was an editor at Salt for over twenty years, and that was complex and at times bad for my writing. It left no room; though I didn’t realise this when I started out in 1999. Of course, I came to choose to give up a large part of my life to my authors – thousands of them over the years – but the sacrifice, if we can call it that, came to swallow up almost all of my life. There was a lot of collision between my sense of myself as a writer and my publishing activities, yet I came to be wholly subsumed into the publishing role. The switch back to being employed elsewhere has been liberating, and I’ve been able to separate out my business life from my writing life and, more broadly, my private life. I mean, I actually have a private life now! I’m only eighteen months into this new operational role but going back to being a general manager has been very rewarding. I’m fortunate to have a great boss and wonderful colleagues and the move into the Church has been personally enriching for me. So certainly very fruitful, and not antagonistic at all. In fact, I’ve never written so much. I’ve always believed that I needed to be in the world of business, I didn’t want to teach, I didn’t want to live through grants or patronage, I wanted to do something commercial and, don’t get me wrong, for years I enjoyed my private sector life. But everything comes to an end. All endings are beginnings.

    You decided to step back a bit from Salt in order to work for The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Can you talk us through your decision to move careers?

    I’ve touched on this earlier. However, the decision to leave Salt and move to work for a Shrine wasn’t prompted by some calculated sense of balancing my writing life. I was going through a profound personal realignment. I’d lived a successful and content secular life for forty years, I had a rather dim view of religion, when suddenly I was dislodged from my own convictions. This was in part a process of disbelief, disbelief in secular satisfactions. I came to doubt the limitations of my own world view. I also realised, and had in my own writings, the limits of science in dealing with human experience, I used to consider how we cannot live in a world without mystery, but I didn’t know quite what this phrase meant. As I was travelling through this accommodation of my past – I’m a cradle Catholic – within a matter of weeks, I was interviewed and employed by the Shrine. I shan’t bore you with the personal narrative and experiences that fed into this, but it was the right decision for me and, after two decades of publishing and running my own business, I decided to serve Christ.

    The government has recently said that poetry should be optional at the GCSE level – a significant demotion in its importance on the curriculum. What is your view on that and what do you feel the impact will be?

    Whether poetry is inherently part of a curriculum or not, it will survive as an art form, so I don’t worry about its relationship to fiction or drama in the framework of syllabus development. I don’t worry about poetry in terms of its share of the education establishment. But there’s a wider context to this and that’s the way kids come into contact with poetry, or orchestral music, or ballet, or opera, or theatre. In this sense, education is the gateway, the space that gives permission to children, and in this context there’s a political and egalitarian component to this debate around poetry. The children of middleclass parents, those enjoying private education, the rich, are afforded more opportunities for this kind of assimilation into culture, and without the rebalancing of access within state education, we end up with a form of cultural apartheid. I hope this makes some kind of sense – it’s not the qualifications or curriculum, it’s the introduction, the initiation to this cultural capital that I find disturbing. I also recognise that poetry is a pain in the arse, yet it’s meant to be awkward, tricksy, resistant to authority, dissonant – things that are hard to teach and accommodate, things that can’t easily be measured or controlled. Poetry provides a critical citizenship and, I think, helps form the unity of the person and offers a living communion today and indeed through history.

    Was there a particular teacher when you were younger who turned you onto poetry?

    If memory serves, Mr Deacon, a supply teacher or trainee English teacher at my grammar school in Manchester, who was so exasperated with the boys not paying attention to some prticular text he threw his book through a window, smashing it. The headmaster promptly turned up and invited him to step out of the classroom for a private word. This singular act made me realise that something could have so much meaning to someone that they would physically act upon it. It was the perfect illustration of genuine literary passion and it set me off on the lifelong task of trying to create beauty and rapture. Or, not getting ahead of myself, at the very least, poignancy. Anyway, I do hope Mr Deacon survived his spell at St Peter’s and went on to do great things in teaching.

    What’s your favourite poem(s) about the workplace?

    Naturally, Larkin springs to mind, though his signal contribution is rather around the comedy of drudgery – and the progress of working life to its eschatological conclusion. Working life needn’t be quite so dreary! Most of us meet our spouses in this space. Most of find friends through work. A few of us find meaning in it. Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Filling Station’ recovers the tiny spiritual attendances of working life. Plath’s ‘The Applicant’ is a terrific feminist retort to Hughes’ ‘Secretary’. Gary Snyder, Philip Levine great on work.