thepeoplealchemist edit: change & transformation, business & lifestyle experimentation for #TheWomanAlchemist

It's a brave new world, isn't it?? Change has been the only constant and invariable during 2020. For the first time, change happened simultaneously AND globally, both from a social perspective (e.g. how entire populations had to learn how to live) and from a business one (e.g. the way we work). The landscape for the working world has been gradually changing for some time. But progress was frustratingly slow and full of debates. Until recently, many industries obeyed very rigid and old fashioned ways of working with many restrictions and with the idea that you couldn't possibly have a life outside of work. Last year however the world of work had to change at an unparalleled speed not to succeed or grow (albeit many did just that) but to survive. Businesses had to pivot to find solutions to problems they never thought they would have. And with this came the actual need to work from home and flexibly to ensure that businesses survived. The old stigma of working from home (AKA skiving) and the lack of trust that it came with somehow had to give way to its necessity. Imagine that? Operating with staff just working online, mmmhh, unbelievable ;-). I hope that this adaptation that companies made to survive is not completely forgotten when this crazy virus is more under control.

Adaption is not just in Darwin's theory of evolution; it should be the-way-we-do-business-right here right now

The Government Equality office highlights how flexible working can help address an organisation’s gender pay gap:

• Well-designed flexible working enables women
  • to reconcile work and caring responsibilities
  • to remain in work and stay in roles that reflect their skills, potentially reducing the gender pay gap
• Offering flexible working in senior positions can enable women to progress despite reducing hours
• Normalising flexible working by boosting its use in all positions and levels of seniority.

Challenging the stereotype of women as carers enables:

• More men to work flexibly,
• Share caring responsibilities more equally with their partners, which can, in turn,
• Support women’s progression.

Doesn't get any better than that. It's a brave new world indeed.