My usual working hours are Monday -> Thursday 08:30 - 17:30. This is usually quite flexible as I have two young kids so sometimes I'll finish work earlier to pick them up from childcare or make dinner, or I'll start late to drop them somewhere.
I am available for calls any time from 7am and can take them up until 9pm in the evening, so do let me know if you need to speak to me outside of normal UK working hours.
I do additional work in the evenings and weekends. I'm very flexible about this and either use the time to have conversations out of my normal timezone, to do some fairly manual work, or to meet a deadline. At these times I'll often have Slack turned off.
I work from one of two places:
- I have a desk in a shared office in Whitley Bay. There's a bunch of local businesses in here. One of my friends has a desk beside me, which is nice as it means I have someone to talk to.
- I also have an office at home where I work from time to time, but not very often anymore as I prefer being out to work.
I have a lot of calls and a lot of big, ongoing tasks to take care of. On top of that are day to day things that tend to take up a lot of time. I try to preserve at least one day a week for working on bigger tasks. This can be hard, but it's important for my personal productivity and effectiveness that I keep making progress on my more strategic tasks.
When I am deep into a task or don't want to be disturbed I usually set myself to Away on Slack. This gives me a greater feeling of disconnection than Do Not Disturb.
I have an ongoing list of tasks that I manage using Mindful and my pen and paper. I use Bear to maintain my notes and for jotting down ideas. It's a bit of a mess but I quite like that they are all in one place.
If I am working on something, I will have created a Github ticket for it. Where possible, I default to transparency. If you want to know what I'm working on, you can find out by looking at the People tag in the Operations Github, or by filtering by username. I occasionally contribute to the Client Services and Growth repos too.
For day-to-day discussion I use Slack. You can ping me any time. I won't always get back to you immediately but I will get back to you. I usually set messages that I need to deal with as Unread, though sometimes I use the Remind me feature.
If communication is related to a ticket I am working on, I will post about it on Github, even if it's just a short note or a question. I like to keep things open in this way.
If you have a question for me that is not sensitive or private, please ask in a public channel and not in a DM.
I prefer text for everyday communication. For talking through problems or complex ideas, I prefer to use voice chat.
Please be direct and upfront in your feedback to me, delivering it as soon as possible after something has happened. If I have done something which has stepped on your toes or that you think has been done incorrectly, please let me know. I really appreciate direct communication.
If you disagree with me, I am always happy to debate and discuss, and am open to changing my mind (that doesn't mean I always will though!). Dissenting voices are hugely important so please do tell me when you think I'm wrong.
I prefer praise in private.
I have been told that sometimes I can be too direct. I am cognisant of this and do try to adjust my style as appropriate. Most of the time I think I'm successful, but sometimes I'm probably not, so please be patient with me.
Despite being too direct, I don't like conflict and get quite anxious when I have a difficult situation to deal with; I can spend a lot of time worrying about it. However, I do try to deal with conflict head on as that is usually the best approach.
I love it when people are upfront, honest, and direct with me. I love being able to talk through issues in a productive manner and to be challenged at any stage of a process.
I love to draw out ideas from other people and to see how groups can come together to produce something more significant than individuals would themselves.
I love to help people grow in their roles and see them thrive in their careers.