Tag: Discipline

A career break shouldn’t break your career.

Ashanta CharmLeave a comment

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…

The Numbers – You know that budget? Double it!

Ashanta CharmLeave a comment

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

Ashanta CharmLeave a comment

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.

Financial Hack: So nice, I had to buy it twice!

Ashanta CharmLeave a comment

The best piece of advice I received growing up was, “If you can’t buy it twice over, you can’t afford it”.

Of course the above doesn’t apply to the acquisition of a property as this is a life changing purchase and something many save years for. However, if you want to be a home owner, you have to be disciplined, you have to save!

I love me a bit of online shopping and I also went through a phase where I loved brands! I moved out of home when I was 18 and lived in one of my dads properties. I covered the electric, gas, shopping, council tax etc. This move was primarily to teach me the cost of life, responsibility and most importantly discipline!

There came a time where I became disheartened because I couldn’t shop as freely as I use to when I lived at home, or would often find myself in a spot of bother towards the end of the month and have to ask my mum to save me. That’s when she delivered this gem, she sat me down and amongst many things, the word that stood out for me is when she said, “If you can’t buy it twice over, you can’t afford it”.

Since then, I have lived by this word and have never found myself in a spot of financial trouble. I live within my means and if I do buy a luxury item, I have enough free cash to buy it two, even three times over. 

I never wanted to be that person that bought a Louis Vuitton bag on pay day, but had to walk to work and eat buttered bread for the remainder of the month because I lived way above my means.  

Lesson:

Don’t be afraid to be fugal – tight! Weigh up your needs vs. your wants.

If you can’t buy it twice and have surplus funds in your account, then you can’t afford it!