Author: Ashanta Charm

I just want to do my job…

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There is a lot more to doing your job than just doing your job.

If you were to mull over the specifics in your job description and not deviate, you’d probably struggle to legitimise a lot of the activity you’re involved it.

Like people, companies, jobs and requirements are always evolving.

Mindset is crucial. The Growth vs. Fixed mindset and how you react or view things that are happening to you is everything.

People often scoff at childish antics or allude that behaving in such a way is unacceptable, however the greatest games I’ve ever encountered were in my professional life. What you say, what you do, the way you say it and to who. It can be quite tiring, but the bottom line for me and something I always lead with is being kind. It’s absolutely free not to be an ass.

If someone writes to you in an abrupt manner or even steals your idea, that’s fine. Be graceful. There is absolutely no need to match energy with energy. Don’t ever allow the way someone treats you to change you. That would be devastating. Be kind always and a good example in the way you react to and treat others.

So yes, you may just want to do your job, but what does that even mean nowadays?

A career break shouldn’t break your career.

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Do childbearing career breaks stunt your growth?

We’re in the thick of Q2… Are you still gyming or have you given up the 6am wake ups already? Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice. If you haven’t already guessed, this months instalment is all things career growth and parenthood. Circling back to my initial point, I don’t have much say in the time I wake up in the mornings as my beautiful gifts in child form are completely unpredictable.

I am a wife, mum of 2 under the age of 3, and a manager in the financial space. I spin a lot of plates in my personal life doing a plethora of roles that I am not paid for, but that’s parenting for you, no days off!

If you’ve been a follower of TellMeElleCee and the “Things they didn’t teach us at school” journey, you’ll know that I am an avid 5 Year Plan advocate.

You need to know where you’re going in order to get there. If you know, you can rope in others and seek the relevant support as and when needed.

Back on topic, the lovely career break. Sigh… Unfortunately the first thing that sprung to mind when I fell pregnant last year was my 5 Year Plan, career and what I was going to do. With that being said I worked right up until my due date and returned to work when my princess was only 4 months (madness, I know!).

So… Do childbearing career breaks stunt your growth?

Yes – It’s simple maths. If you break whilst others are still accelerating it is simple math. Those still moving whilst others have stopped will move further ahead.

No – Although you stop for a period of time, it’s not what you haven’t been able to do that matters, but what you do when you put your foot back on the gas that does. Jump in with both feet, use those transferable skills to your advantage.

I once read that parents are the best hires as they simply cannot fail; they have too much riding on them to give up, are epic multitaskers and simply get the job done!

To all my Parents. Culture, flexibility and diversity is everything! Keep this in mind when you make your next career move…

Life is extremely short. I often speak to colleagues and friends in the industry that suffer severe parental guilt because of a lack of work-life balance. Our children are not going to be this age ever again and by the time you get to a place of “calm” or your desired pinnacle point of success, it may be too late. Your children will get older, lose interest or even worse; choose to continue the vicious cycle clinging on to the example you set.

There’s a lot to think about, mouths to be fed and job satisfaction to be had.

Ultimately do what is right for you because you will never get this time back and if growing in your career means neglect or mental harm, then maybe it’s not all it’s cracked out to be…

Be clear and upfront with your boundaries & expectations

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I’m a “get to the headline” kind of woman. I address the elephant in the room, I’m clear and upfront with my expectations and often want to be clear on others expectations of me.

When you are clear, there is minimal room for assumptions and unfulfilled wants.

Often, people feel as if they’re at a power disadvantage in their role or at their workplace resulting in a “put up and shut up” culture.

You can be clear with what you expect and what you won’t tolerate regardless of your level, who you report to or who reports to you.

Amongst the competitive salaries, employee benefits and OTE, most just want to feel valued, respected and have full autonomy of their day. Something that is inexpensive and not too strenuous.

Something I wish I learned at school is that you can make an impact in whatever space you occupy. The ability to add value and be influential in a space knows no boundaries. The ability to take ownership of how you feel and how you make others feel is effortless but oh so effective!

It costs absolutely nothing to keep your colleagues happy. And it’s free to be a nice person.

Be clear and upfront with your boundaries & expectations, but also be respectful of the boundaries and expectations of others!

5 Year Plan – If you don’t know where you are going, how are you supposed to get there?

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If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s the importance of a plan. Flexibility is needed and often you may find your self taking routes you’d never imagined.

The goal will always have various routes, but the end game is the same.

If you want to know more about planning, read the post I intricately dedicated to this matter here.

2023 has already been a peculiar year with many outlets casting doubts over the capabilities of women (New Zealand PM resigning) and the growing number of lay offs we’re seeing across industries. If there ever was a time when planning with flexibility was crucial, it would be now!

Don’t get so bogged down in the details or be too hard on yourself. What’s meant to be for you will find you and every step toward your goal regardless of the size is progress.

Remember, have a growth mindset. It’s not about what’s happened or is happening to you. It’s about how you respond!

Treat your marriage like a business…

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It felt like it was only yesterday I was celebrating the New Year on my pretty impressive street filled with flame throwers, balancing acts and a bit of limbo.

As January draws to a close, I sit here and reflect on something my husband and I have really clung to.

Weekly check-ins!

That’s right. We sit at the table, discuss what we’ve got on the week ahead, goals we hope to achieve and general syncing of our diaries with the kids.

This element of our marriage we’ve decided to treat like a business.

Why?

We both work in quite high pressure environments, are familiar with targets and throw ourselves in to our roles in such a way, that we couldn’t possibly lose all that goodness to our jobs and miss out in the development of our personal life.

This has been an amazing, welcome change and something we’ll most definitely keep up.

Give it a try. Whether you live with flat mates, family, your kid or alone. A weekly check in to hash out expectations, highlight problem areas and generally know the direction you’re heading in is powerful and a recipe for fulfilment.

That’s all.

Happy month end 😁

Work Life Balance: I can’t sleep if any stone is left unturned!

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This week I noticed a quality and simultaneous negative trait in myself that I was able to overcome!

I was talking to a colleague and giving them advice when it dawned on me that I’ve overcome one of my greatest struggles in my working life.

I was once upon a time unable to leave any stone unturned!

That doesn’t mean that I now leave a load of unturned stones nor does it mean that my quality of work has dipped. This just means that I have a better balance and although I sometimes relapse, for the most part, I am getting it right.

Problem:

I couldn’t log off work or sleep if I didn’t finish a task. I would dream about that email, look visibly uncomfortable if I didn’t see to that review and hide in the corners of my home (outside of working hours) to go back to others on queries. One could argue that this attitude is why I was able to grow in my career, but this attitude is also why one weekend I was in bed with severe migraines absolutely run down!

Impact:

I found that I was literally working every hour that God sent and not having any break up between work, home life, the weekend or quality couple time. I would pull out my laptop or work apps on my phone anywhere I could to get the job done! This wound up my husband and made me feel like I was being a bad mum.

Solution:

It’s a process. Prioritisation is key as is boundaries! What needs to get done right now, what can wait and what can I delegate? These are 3 questions I ask myself and deal with tasks accordingly. I’m also very clear with my boundaries and availability – if I can’t get to something you’ve asked me to do, I will let you know or explicitly express how long it will be before what you’ve asked will be done (always giving myself buffer space to breathe). It’s not always about working hard, sometimes it’s about working smart and sharing the load.

Commitment to delivering excellence is amazing, being a good employee/colleague is admirable, but all of this is pointless if you keep popping out the golden eggs, but are forgetting to take care of the goose.

Work life balance.

The Numbers – You know that budget? Double it!

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6 Years ago we bought our first property. It was so long ago that I feel like I had a little process amnesia.

Being a first time buyer was soooo much easier than being a home mover. The extra baggage creeps up on you and you don’t realise that you’ve accumulated so much stuff!

Let’s get down to the numbers.

My husband is a numbers man. He wants it all to be accounted for on the spreadsheet and adds a £200 buffer to absolutely everything! It really annoys me because I’m all up for rounding up to the nearest 10, but £200? He takes it too far!

Well, it seems as if Mr Charm was on to something.

The costly thing isn’t in things you accounted for costing a little more than expected, but it’s in the things that you had no intention of spending money on requiring money to be spent!

To give you an idea, we always knew that we had to give the house some make up. Lick of paint, furniture, art etc. We accounted for painting all the rooms and a newly fitted kitchen/bathroom for personal reasons, not really a super necessity.

As time progressed so did the need for that budget to be stretched.

Natural floorboards meant the risk of worms, stray bits and with a young child, anything that is a risk to master charm will be seen to. We had to get the floors sanded, treated and polished.

There’s also the other unaccounted area – the garden! We hadn’t had a garden for so long that upkeep and the importance of a sturdy fence was not at the forefront of our minds.

Limp water. Nothing boils my blood more than a limp shower. Power shower or nothing! That’s what we were dealing with. The bathroom was due a facelift, but lead times were a nightmare and was we really going to live with limp water for that long? I think not.

It turns out that all of those £200 add ons were welcomed and helped us in some stretched situations.

Lesson learnt? Double that budget & don’t be a home Reno snob. Another added learn for me was to let my husband get involved, two heads are better than one and after all, this is OUR home not mine!

Work-Life Balance: The Intern is equally as important as the Exec

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This week I planned to share a post which highlighted the importance of Diversity, Inclusion and being able to bring your whole self to work, but I’m going to deviate slightly.

The title of this post is pretty self explanatory.

Regardless of who you encounter in the workplace, give them the same amount of respect and time that you would anyone else.

Why?

1- It’s human decency and good character

2- You never know where this person will be in years to come. Some people are extremely ambitious and may end up being your boss in a few career cycles.

3- You never know what people are going through. Some people are uber qualified, but take whatever role they can get to pay the bills or they may have just taken a career change and now need to work their way up from an entry level position due to a lack of experience.

All in all regardless of role or seniority all people deserve to be treated fairly.

Don’t ignore someone’s email because you don’t see “the decision maker” copied in. Don’t reply with a snarky tone because you deem yourself more important than said recipient.

After all, life has a funny way of humbling people. That colleague you treated horribly could be related to the person whose decision it is regarding a big contract you’re banking on signing.

I once read a really interesting quote that I think is quite relatable to this topic. It says, “you can tell the character of a guy by the way he talks to the waiter”.

Be kind.

You don’t know what people are going through or who the “real” boss is. Titles are great, but the man on the field delivering deserves a little nod of thanks from time to time.

People don’t leave companies, they leave bosses and unpleasant relationships.

NEW SERIES: Work-Life Balance

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Introduction

Welcome back! 

We’ve been knees deep in a pandemic, my property woes came to an abrupt end, whilst I navigated my career/a remote promotion. I think it’s safe to say that I get a free pass for my impromptu TellMeElleCee hiatus.

Something that has been a hot topic amongst my peers, and I is work-life balance. I’ve had a few interesting conversations and they have inspired me to write this series. 

In this series, we will discuss bringing about boundaries, input vs. output and debate whether people leave companies or managers – juicy!

Feel free to engage, contact me directly and give me your point of view. Let’s keep the conversation going and hopefully bring about a better balance.

You can expect a new post every Wednesday for a mid week boost. Happy Hump Day!

Stamp Duty Holiday – Survival of the quickest

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Now is a good time to sell your property.

Houses and even flats are flying off of the market like hot cakes.

Now that buyers with as little as 5% deposit are in the mix, they have more choice and are competing with first time buyers and home movers for properties that would have previously been unaffordable and out of their budget.

In terms of applying for a mortgage, the same affordability factors apply (i.e annual salary, debt to income ratio and stress testing).

This new initiative means that those who can generally afford a £200,000.00 property, but just didn’t have £20,000.00 for a 10% deposit, can now buy a property within that price range with a 5% £10,000.00 deposit.

It’s important to note that nothing is ever done as a good will gesture. This kind of lending does present risks to lenders which is why you’ll find that interest rates are a lot higher when a buyer is presenting less deposit and borrowing more (loan to value).

Before the pandemic and the 5% deposit initiate, a 90% mortgage which meant the borrower would of been presenting 10% deposit, had interest rates in and around the 1.89% region. Now for the similar kind of mortgage, you’re looking at 3.49% interest rates. Shocking! That’s almost double!

  1. Find out how much a bank is willing to lend you & get a decision in principle (known as a DIP or AIP)
  2. Look for properties within your budget. See it, view it & make an Offer on the property within 24 hours.

“I called the Estate Agent to arrange a viewing as soon as the property came on the market and within minutes it was gone!“

You snooze, you loose…

Remember, it’s survival of the quickest!