Janet Hughes
@JanetHughes
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Director for farming and countryside at @Defragovuk . Allotmenteer, reader, over-enthusiast. Here to learn and make things work better. @jacattell ’s wife :)
London
Joined February 2009
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So um yeah, bit of happy news: well, what happened is, we secretly got married and now we are all happy and over-exicted and everything 😁
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Really excited to be starting on Monday as programme director for the Future Farming and Countryside Programme, on a mission to transform the way we regulate and support agriculture and the countryside environment.
I'd love any tips on what to read and who to connect with :)
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The main stages of resistance to / adoption of new things:
1 Ignore it
2 Ridicule it and the horse it rode in on
3 Say yes, but do nothing at all differently
4 'Comply' (maliciously)
5 Openly attack it
6 Claim it as your own idea that you had ages ago and have always believed in
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I wrote: what a digital organisation looks like and how to turn yours into one: for
@doteveryoneuk
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Starting a thread to share things I am learning about leading a team that's newly entirely remote. I'm sure a lot of this will be obvious to lots of ppl, so just sharing in case it's at all useful to anyone who's also new to this and learning as they go...
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Did a quick talk on 5 things I've learned about making change happen:
1. Set a clear mandate
2. Be bold - if not you, who? If not now, when?
3. Build community - support the people already doing great stuff
4. Be open - learn & share
5. Make change, not powerpoint decks
wdyt?
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In my role, I'm asked to discuss 'talent' based on putting people in a 9-box grid and it just feels plain wrong.
The grids bake in all our organisational biases, lead us to focus on so-called 'talented people' at the expense of everyone else and should just get in the sea, no?
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That thing where you avoid a task for 2 weeks for no apparent reason, get quite anxious about it, and then it turns out to be perfectly straightforward take you about 5 minutes.
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While we're in confession mode: fyi, all the best people have notebooks that they've owned for >5 years, as yet unused because their true purpose has not yet become clear.
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We recently instituted a new rule in our teams: meetings start at 5 past or 35 past the hour, for 25/55 mins, to give us time to top up our tea between meetings.
Might seem a tiny thing but it does really reduce the feeling of Zoomerwhelm that comes from back to back Zoomage :)
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Hi fellow civil servants, past and present 👋
I'm very proud to be one of you :)
#justsaying
#proudcivilservant
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What are the best examples of genuine co-design* that you know of please, brilliant Twitter friends?
*not stakeholder engagement, consultation, or even user-centred design; co-design: solving problems and questions together with the people who actually face them in their lives
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Really struck by this idea from some discussions with farmers today:
'I want to feel about Defra the way I feel about my vet: professionals who want me to succeed and are there to help'
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This ‘stell’ is a shelter for sheep in - they come in when it’s snowy and windy.
Last restored c. 40 years ago by the current farmer’s father, and still in *perfect* condition.
The level of skill and craftsmanship is really quite beautiful / mindblowing.
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We just ran 20 mins without stopping, in my case for the first time in approx 20 years! WOOOOOT!
#Couchto5K
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I think we civil servants are often fearful of getting around and talking to people when we don't know all the answers yet and we know we can't please everyone.
What I'm finding is that people are perfectly ok with all that, they just really value genuine respect & engagement.
Listening to
@JanetHughes
speaking to a group of Cambs farmers this evening. Great to see
@DefraGovUK
officials out & about engaging with farmers on new schemes and policy changes. On top of her brief 👍.
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Also, can I just say, I am feeling massively inspired by and proud of my civil service colleagues right now.
There are an awful lot of brilliant people here with huge integrity, consideration, care and commitment doing their absolute best for their fellow citizens.
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To anyone who gets nervous about public speaking:
I really enjoy doing talks, especially once I’m onstage and after they’re done. It’s a good prompt to sort your thoughts out, it’s fun, it feeds my confidence and it’s always interesting and useful to see which bits resonate.
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Without fail, every time I do a set of tweets about what I'm doing this week it leads to at least one really useful new contact or conversation. Making things open makes them better. Highly recommend it as a regular practice.
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We're recruiting some senior roles in the future farming and countryside programme - deadline 17 Jan, so you can either apply over the festive period, or if that doesn't work, in the new year.
These are v exciting roles (seriously, we're not messing around, give them a look).
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Why isn’t
#FarmersSaveThePlanet
a thing? Is there another hashtag where farmers share the amazing things for nature and the climate on their farms? If not shall we get one going, Farming Twitter?
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Hey Northumberland is quite stunningly beautiful though, isn’t it? 😍
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It's mental health awareness week next week. So I wrote a thing about mental health:
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PS if you know deep down that you are in fact qualified to do these roles, but are reading any of the application packs and are not sure if you meet the criteria, then I implore you: send your imposter syndrome to sit outside and think about its behaviour. We'd love you to apply.
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Feedback from a farmer I met today: ‘by some strange coincidence, you lot seem to have done something that’s actually not that bad’
#winning
💪🔥💃🏻🎉
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No better way to end the week than a few quiet minutes of pottering on the allotment 💚
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What do you miss the least from pre-lockdown life?
I absolutely do not miss wandering around the office looking for a meeting room for a confidential call or if I hadn't managed to book a room in advance. Let's never return to that joyless frustration, hey?
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Whoop that was ace fun!
Did my talk on Digital Government: reasons to be cheerful.
Really enjoyed the questions and discussion - loving the
#SDinGov
crowd :)
Here are my slides and full speaker notes:
#overexcited
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Me: Just a quick little trip to the garden centre to pick up one or two essential things….
Me 45 mins later: car overflowing with plants I have no actual space for, having failed to buy the single small pot I theoretically came for 😂
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Don't know if I've mentioned this at all, but I am quite enjoying my new job 😍
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Happy bank holiday weekend everyone. I will be spending mine mostly here 💚
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I had another civil service joke but it got tied up in governance and I lost the will to tell it
I have a joke about imposter syndrome, but I don't think I'm the right person to tell it
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Farming Twitter: who are the leading regenerative agriculture practitioners in England, would you say, please?
(Clarification: England because that's the scope of the programme I'm leading, not because I'm not generally interested in things outside England)
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The dawning realisation that it’s not being in lockdown that’s going to do my head in; it’s coming out the other side.
I’m sure it can’t be just me who feels this way?
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Before I clock off for 2021: a huge thanks to all of my lovely Twitter community. I've learned so much and felt a huge amount of goodwill, connection and encouragement as well as a healthy dose of challenge. I am incredibly grateful and can't wait for more next year. Thank you x
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A lot of farmers must have felt absolutely sick today, waiting to hear news about poss F&M. Sparing a thought tonight for all who've spent the day recalling that trauma and deeply hoping it won't be repeated, and amazing
@DefraGovUK
colleagues who've been working to rule it out.
Huge thanks to colleagues
@Pirbright_Inst
@apha
for working through the night to get us to this conclusion. And to the farmer and staff involved for all their help. Stressful time all round.
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I have a civil service joke but I’m not allowed to tell it
I have a joke about imposter syndrome, but I don't think I'm the right person to tell it
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If you'll permit me a small moment of excitable joy-sharing:
I really do enjoy my job. It's challenging and interesting in all the right ways, I love the community of interest around it and the chance to make a positive impact is dead exciting.
Just felt the need to share :)
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I have a job that involves receiving emails about beavers and I am very happy about that fact. Just saying.
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Had a brilliant meeting this afternoon with a bunch of colleagues about how we're going to build a genuinely multi-disciplinary, agile & user-centred team - policy, ops, digital & more all working together to deliver a service that really works for our users. Exciting times.
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Bear quite likes to pop in and make his presence known a few times each day. Mainly through the medium of ardent headbutting ❤️
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That thing when you're in an Important Meeting and your slightly over-excited brain keeps throwing jokes*, entertaining** and sweary catchphrases, and other completely inappropriate interventions at you.
Just me?
* funny to nobody but me
** entertaining to nobody but me
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Just hanging out with my new goat bff Odin, as you do (courtesy of
@RBSTrarebreeds
@greatyorkshow
)
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And with that, and not a moment too soon, the days started getting longer again 🥳🎉🕺🏻🎊🎻🎉
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Writing an essay with the title 'why should a major project be led by you?'. It is as excruciating as you might imagine.
Q: why should you be in charge of anything?
A: <looks at the ground> <squirms> "Um, I dunno really, I probably shouldn't really." <dies>
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Massively over-excited: 66 people turned up for our little co-design meetup! Academics, food and farming experts, designers, policy people, local gov, central gov.... A more brilliant, energised, diverse and collaborative group you'd be hard pressed to find. Love it :) :) :)
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First day of my new gig at
@educationgovuk
today!
I’m here to help build and support the community of senior responsible owners (SROs) - the people responsible for the programmes the department is delivering.
Excited to get started and work out how I can help :)
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Hello lovely people who know all about being user-centred.
I'm working with
@Emmastace
to help define what it means for
@educationgovuk
to be user-centred in *everything* we do: services, policies, all of it.
This is what we have so far - what do you think? What have we missed?
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I'm incredibly proud to have been nominated for this on behalf of my brilliant
@DefraGovUK
group colleagues
#ProudCivilServant
What we're doing will only work if we listen and work with farmers, respectfully and openly. We know there is *plenty* more to do, but it's lovely to be
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Paging all stationery nerds: stop everything immediately and order 100 of these puppies
@jaCattell
@jereeve
@kitterati
@neillyneil
@DavidBuckster
Public service announcement... 💃🏻THIS PRODUCT TURNS ALL PAPER THINGS INTO POST ITS. YES it means what you think it means 💫⚡️🥳Thank you
@AgonyAuntElla
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I am having the sort of day where I accidentally add kisses at the end of texts to work colleagues and then over-explain that I didn't mean to do that but do of course love them dearly but not in a sending kisses sort of a way.
How's your day going? 😅
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I'm moving on from
@gdsteam
- it's been a blast and a huge privilege, thank you everyone :)
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That feeling when a few weeks into a new job you finally start to come out the other side of the 'omg I can't take on any more information make it stop where do I even start' phase and into the 'ok, let's DO this' phase :) :) :)
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Sharing this because I would like nervous public speakers to know: it’s not just you, it’s normal to be nervous. It gets easier with practice and if you unapologetically be yourself rather than fretting about people judging you. Easier said than done, I know. But worth a try.
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Passed my final interview for the Major Projects Leadership Academy today - feeling very relieved and proud to have stuck with it for 18 months despite yanno everything :)
For anyone thinking about doing it, here are some things I liked and things I would improve:
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For our next Future Farming podcast, I'll be interviewing Gabe Brown, author of Dirt to Soil :)
I thought it might be interesting to crowdsource some questions this time: what would you most like to hear him asked?
#RegenerativeAg
#regenerativeagriculture
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Current status: beaming as my policy colleagues get on the case immediately clarifying a point of detail in a document we published today, based on feedback we picked up by hanging out in online forums where farmers are chatting about it
Constant learning and improvement ftw :)
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Leading big programmes is mainly about learning how to find and amplify the positive in every situation. (Also, don't ignore problems or difficult feelings or conversations; shine a light on them and face into them. Just do it positively.)
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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Tell you what, I moved here in the 90s and as a cyclist London’s a completely different city now - proper separate lanes all over the place :)
Shout out to a *lot* of people who’ve worked over the last 20+ years to make cycling so much safer and more joyful for us all ❤️
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Broke my Select Committee duck! 🐥
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The joyful simple lovely magic of unearthing the first potatoes of the season, taking them home and scoffing them the same day 😍
#allotment
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I asked Tim Smit, Eden Project founder, what the source of his fantastic boldness was. He said: I just love tweaking the tails of tigers and seeing what happens, I love adventure, and it's amazing how much you can get away with if you're smiling when you do it ❤️
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Happy birthday ! That day feels like an actual whole lifetime ago. At this stage, we hadn’t yet onboarded any gov departments; all that excitement was to come over the next 6 months - the best 6 months ever ❤️
@neillyneil
@yahoo_pete
@rossferg
@dgheath21
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📣📣 The allotment polytunnel is up! 📣📣
Whole new levels of allotment-based joy in the Hughes / Cattell household today 🤩😍💚🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🌱🌱🌱😁🥳😆😃😅
(PS yes it is actually taller than me despite appearances in this picture which are due to me excitably standing on a thing)
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I'm required to operate within the rules on how civil servants work during a pre-election period.
All our schemes and services will continue to operate / roll out as normal, but I'm afraid I'm not allowed to engage on social media until after the election so I won't be able to
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Planning a workshop on how to run a discovery for any project, not just digital ones. Excited.
I'm v. keen to learn from people who have already been down this road - anyone got any pointers to good work already done on this topic, please?
(Also does anyone want to join in?)
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Hurray for ever lighter, longer days from this point on :)
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Ok. Right. That's me done and away.
✅Emails: cleared
✅Essential tasks: done
✅Out of office: on
I'll be 100% offline, on holiday, until Wednesday, 1 September.
See you all on the other side x
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We'll be publishing some information today about how the sustainable farming incentive will work from next year - I'll post links here to documents and speeches as soon as they're online
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Just to share that as a civil servant I’ll be offline from now, respecting the period of national mourning, and there won’t be any public communications about our work over this period.
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Absolute scenes on the allotment this evening after the first proper rain for ages 🐌 🐌 🐌😭😭😂
#Slugmageddon
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Here are slides from today's talk at
#campdigital
(pdf and .key) with some speaker notes which are a bit of a combo of what I planned to say and what I actually said ;)
Thanks again organisers and fellow attendees for a lovely awesome fun event :)
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Taking a moment to reflect on and be grateful for the incredible public service of these two, and all the public servants they (to my mind) represent
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One of those days where you wake up feeling a bit overwhelmed (happens to us all sometimes, doesn't it?) but then have one or two positive chats that lift your spirits, manage to make progress here & there, and feel back to happy buoyancy again by teatime 🙏😊
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Oops, I suppose you're meant to log in to LinkedIn more frequently than once per quarter, then, are you? Might have missed a few messages, sorry if that's you...
(obvs I am apologising here rather than on LinkedIn because don't really get what LinkedIn is actually for)
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A post about what's in store this year in the future farming programme: a year of details and delivery:
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Been waiting for the ladybird cavalry to arrive and sort out the blackfly situation. It can be hard to keep the faith and resist the urge to do something with chemicals. But today they’ve arrived! 🐞🐞🐞
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I am absolutely chuffed to bits to have been accepted onto the
@ForwardInst
fellowship, starting next year . It's all about responsible leadership, across different sectors.
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I can't remember how I used to do meetings in person, having got used to having all my notes and the entire internet at my fingertips all the time.
Current status: printing out the entire internet so I have it to hand, just in case I need to refer to it...
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Morning all - covid has finally caught up with me so this week I’ll be at home recovering and won’t be very active on here
(I’m feeling rough but nothing worrying - v grateful to be vaxxed, & thinking of clinically vulnerable folk for whom this is still very serious & worrying)
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Bit of a non-work related thing for a Friday afternoon:
This Christmas I'll be doing 9 days of voluntary work with
@crisis_uk
, helping to run a hotel and a range of support services for people facing homelessness. It's something I do every year, and I love doing it.
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I am especially much in professional love with my team-mates this week:
✅busting through problems
👋working together across organisations
👍responding to feedback
🤜🤛pitching in to help
♥️ staying kind
💪making things better together
Brilliant 😍
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OMG Tetris post-it notes. OMG. Paging all stationery nerds. Urgent.
@kitterati
@neillyneil
@jaCattell
h/t
@CassieRobinson
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At
@kewgardens
there's an avenue of beautiful huge trees, perfectly aligned for a long stream of setting autumn sun. I *love* it.
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Driving home inspired, full of hope and ideas after spending a day with
@herdyshepherd1
on his farm and talking to
@UllswaterCic
about the amazing regenerative farming, water management and environmental improvements they’re doing - it’s so impressive and fascinating.
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Positively buzzing after a lively co-design workshop with 40 people (farmers, land managers, others who are interested) about farming regulation.
Absolutely brilliant to hear directly from the people who need to use our policies and systems about how they work in real life.
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April 2020 became September 2021 and then suddenly there was something resembling a little garden full of life and loveliness 💚💚 💚
(Needs a few more plants squeezing in, obviously
@jaCattell
😂)
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We've published some information about the sustainable farming incentive pilot - we'll be open to expressions of interest from next week from people who want to help us learn and develop the scheme over the next few years :)
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Delivery hangover: the period of grief / depression / loss / flatness immediately following a big deadline.
This is totally a thing, and we should talk more about how to handle it, no?
h/t
@jereeve
who (amongst many other things) has the strongesr impromptu chat game in town
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TFW when you reach a point in your life when you routinely get blank looks in response to cultural references cos you are referring to things that happened in (what feels to them like) The Victorian Times. eg:
* graphic equaliser
* hi fi
* ghetto blaster
* Brucie Bonus
* Zebedee
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Today I have completed all my planned tasks and cleared my inbox and I feel like an absolute champion. Just felt you should all know.
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Possibly the actual worst pie chart ever
I won't name-and-shame the organisation responsible, but currently breaking out in a cold sweat and hyperventilating at the sight of this pie chart in a report I'm reading. 😱
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Do I know anyone who is a mental health champion* in their organisation? I've just become one and am looking to find my community :)
*someone trying to make it ok to talk about mental health, nurture communities and make sure the org properly supports people with MH conditions
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*Might* be on The Radio (
@BBCFarmingToday
) very early doors tomorrow talking about the agricultural transition and what it means for farmers.... exciting times!
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