Month: September 2008

what a difference a fortnight makes….

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Photo courtesy of Elton Harding

Photo courtesy of Elton Harding

Been off on hols for two weeks only to find that if you turn your back for a minute, by the time you look  around again, the economy has taken a few more heavy-footed steps towards disaster…….XL popped its clogs leaving me and a couple of hundred other holiday makers stranded and out of pocket….Alitalia is allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy but the sniff of an oilrag is keeping it flying…..Lehman is no more…..Merrill got bought……the women of Alaska have found their voices opposing  Palin….lots of events I wanted to go to happened and the world and his dog wants a PR agency/proposal. I picked a busy fortnight to go away it seems….note to self – go away in September again next year 🙂

Closer to home, my copy of David Brain‘s book arrived and he is now lying on top of Jackie Collins on a coffee table in my lounge ( #thingsithoughtidneversay )

And finally, not known to rest on their laurels, the Ruder Finn team have been yammering away all week and I logged on see various invites to another new network sitting in the inbox ….off to give it a whirl….

Holiday was ace by the way…

getting to the point

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

The subtitle of this blog is PR: Family Life: Having it all: Having a ball and as yet, I have failed miserably to write about much of it…

So, after four months of random posts, I am sitting down tonight to finish a post on the topic I originally intended this blog to be about (before I got sidetracked writing about other stuff)

Making flexible working actually work…

As a woman, a mum and someone passionate about what they do (PR if you haven’t figured it out yet or are new to this site), I am always keen to fly the flag for the intelligent, passionate and hard working people that all have the following in common…those who want:

a) a career

b )a family

c) a life outside of a major city

d) a permanent job

So answer me this. Why is it so many PR agencies are so backwards in their approach to letting staff work flexibly, for example part time or from home or adopting a dual location/time splitting plan?

The percentage of my friends and ex colleagues’ jaws that hit the floor when they hear that I a) work permanently for a London agency b) I spend the majority of my time working from Cornwall and c) I run a division which includes managing people, is shockingly high.

In an industry that has flogged the arse out of the work life balance issue for many years, why are we so bad at practising what we preach?

Is it a pure and simple trust issue?

Are agency bosses unsure of the skills needed to manage people remotely?

Is it the short term, knee jerk mentality that so many PR agencies have when responding to clients’ demands (“I NEED TO MEET YOU TODAY”)?

Surely it is a no brainer for agencies looking for a sustainable business model, less churn and lower overheads? Why are examples so rare then?

Or are they there and I have missed them?

I’d love to hear from anyone working in agency or who has had a flexible work request turned down….and if you have good examples of agencies offering real flexible work programmes, please also get in touch.