Fun fact. The notion of ‘work life balance’ was first proposed by a renegade called Robert Owen. Can you guess when? 1817. Owen’s famous phrase was “8 hours labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest” neatly dividing the day into work time, play time and rest time. While the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says […]
Managing work-life creep Read More
Every morning my daughter and I fight a silent battle. She visits my bathroom and turns the toilet paper role upside down. I follow along turning it the right side up. In recent times our silent battle has caused me to do a little more research. My girl seems to be very passionate about this
The right way to hang toilet paper and its role in critical dissent Read More
Foreword: My own relationship with the word resilience has changed over the years. While I was quick to embrace in my work practice many years ago I always found it somewhat patronising as it was usually applied in a context of assisting our most vulnerable communities almost implying (well, we invested you to be tough, now
Crisis in a community is a tricky beast. While we may be told each crisis can be managed with the same set of instructions, they can’t. Unless that template is written to accommodate all place-based variables. What? Let’s take one experience I had during the 2019 bushfires. I was volunteering in a community I know
Why local knowledge is critical Read More
How are your new year’s resolutions going? Out the window yet? A few years ago I started thinking about different ways to join the ‘better me in January’ brigade and eventually I settled on the following list. It worked so well last year (and lasted well beyond January) that I thought I’d do it all
Ten ideas for a happier new year Read More
For the best part of two decades I’ve been advocating for changes to the way young people are supported in their careers. I’ve delivered dozens of education and labour market programs, I’ve advocated from numerous angles, participated in countless pilot programs, employed numerous young people in my own businesses, brought together people working towards similar
Why I’ve lost hope for our future workforce Read More
In 2024 I’ll celebrate 20 years in my business Evolve Network Australia. TWO decades of serving my community and doing work that I love. As far as work goes it doesn’t get any better than that in my books. It will be a big milestone – the business is almost the same age as my
Change a life – share an opportunity Read More
People ask me all the time how I get so much done. The answer is simple – and complex. The SIMPLE version of the answer is: I love what I do, and I work hard at it. No rocket science there. And it’s the truth, a 60 hour week is a snack for me. And
How do you get so much done? Read More
When my dad was diagnosed with younger onset dementia he was too young to fit in the aged care system, yet his illness was classified as an ageing disease, not a disability so he didn’t fit in that box either. This lack of fit is something that everyday folks experience every, single day. For carers
It takes a community Read More
I know so many truly good, open hearted, productive and bone tired accidental leaders. These are the people who are in the pubs selling raffle tickets, get stopped in the supermarkets to answer any kind of question, always show up to the community meetings to fill up the never ending pieces of butchers paper and
Are you a leader? No? So why are people following you? Read More