Hi {{first name | friend}},
I’ve got something a little different for you this week…
I had a great conversation with Alex Young on her podcast, Favourite Positions, and I must share it with you because I cover something that has the potential to change how you experience work for the better.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I used to think I was too busy at work to build relationships with my coworkers, until I realised they were the people I spent the most time with.
Over 800,000 deaths worldwide are linked to loneliness annually, yet we've created an unspoken culture where we avoid eye contact on public transport on the way to work, we wear headphones to dodge interaction in the office, and we show up a few minutes late to meetings to purposefully avoid the pre-meeting small talk. (Yes, people really do this!!)
The data shows that one in five of us feel lonely at work daily. And I'm not surprised, because something has changed in the last five years.
Many of us have that magic number of 500 LinkedIn connections but can't think of anyone to call when we need a new role. We walk past someone's desk and can't remember how to start a casual conversation. We communicate through screens, through Slack messages, through carefully worded emails that take 20 minutes to write because we're trying to get the tone just right.
There's something I try to understand but I just can't. Many of us spend more time with our coworkers than with our family and friends. Seven, eight, nine hours a day, five days a week.
And yet we invest the least effort in learning how to interact with the people we're surrounded by the most.
Of course, there are some terrible people out there and you might even work with one of them. If we zoom out a little and focus on the good people around us, could stronger coworker relationships help us feel less lonely?
We chat about this, plus:
Why technical ability alone is not always enough for career progression
What human skills actually are and why they matter
The role of managers in helping people build stronger human skills
Why small day-to-day actions can impact our relationships at work
🎙 Listen to Alex and I chat here
Alex has created such an interesting podcast on modern careers. It’s one of the most practical libraries of career advice I’ve come across.
Highly, highly recommend!
See you next Monday,
Hayley
🧠 The smartest career move you can make is learning to work with people
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1. Human Skill School: Our 7-week programme where you learn to communicate, collaborate and build relationships at work. Cohort 2 is open for enrolment right now. School starts on Monday 1 June.
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2. Let’s Talk events: Our career-focussed conversation series that brings people together to practise the human connection we’re all craving.
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3. Workplace training: For teams to work better together and become more connected, productive and impactful.
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