We all know those emails, right? The ones that drop into our inbox and fill us with an immediate sense of impending doom. Fifteen people in the ‘To’ field, a further ten in the ‘Cc’ field… and goodness knows how many in the ‘Bcc’ field. From the moment that first mail arrives, you know you’re destined to spend the next couple of hours watching email after email in the chain arrive, circular threads of communication between anyone and everyone who may – or may not – be able to help address the topic in question.
Tuesday of this week was my birthday. I marked it by taking a day out of the office. Every employee who works for Benefex is given their birthday as an additional day off – it’s not taken from their annual leave allowance, it’s an additional day on top of that. We do it because we don’t believe anyone should have to work on their birthday (unless they want to!).
Ask me my least favourite phrase from the world of work, and it’s a tough one. You’d have to be a considerably more tolerant person than I am not to grit your teeth when a classic such as “low hanging fruit”, “let’s take a deep dive”, or “I’m going to reach out to them” is trotted out.