I have to catch up with 3 weeks’ worth of teaching at University this week, as I had issues registering for my studies on the student portal. It’s also worth noting I am yet to be back on campus. I have only attended the Ethics class online, which resulted in me reflecting on how Ethics is actually structured, beyond ethical theories like Moral absolutism and relativism chosen by my Ethics professor in class to start the conversation. After class, what I did was to connect the dots between those pieces of ethical theories.
I have found that Ethics is a branch of Philosophy and it is also called Moral Philosophy. What does it look into? Basically, what is good/bad and right/wrong. In class we touched upon two of the four ethical approaches: Deontological ethics and Teleological ethics. It was interesting to chase the different ethical theories and see which fall under these two approaches and soon realized just how broad Ethics actually is, beyond what I was taught in class, and that made my neurons light up.
PHOTO OF A LIGHTBULB. PIXABAY/PEXELS.COM
But back to the reason you’re reading this. Our professor asked us if we think that killing is wrong, well I don’t remember her exact wording, but it was only me and Lily who raised our hand in Teams. At ‘’prima facie’’ or first sight you think all killing is wrong which is being morally absolutist, but my professor and colleagues said to think about circumstances where you wouldn’t want to kill someone until you need to self-defense, let’s say if you were attacked jogging on the street. Or if you were employed by the Secret Service where you willingly signed a contract to take someone out for a day job.
Disapproving of killing someone is considered morally subjective(just another name to relativism) or non-objectivism. One interesting point I found on Wikipedia(Richard Joyce, 2016), was that this type of statements(killing is wrong) is showing a person’s mental attitudes, but to this we can also add our own social conditioning like the environment in which we grew up in, our parents, (The Mind Fool, 2019).
Throughout my life I have seen that killing is wrong because then legal rights are applied and that person who committed the crime goes to jail for many years, and I can imagine what the impact is on the family members on both sides for any criminal. Relativism stands that there is no absolute truth, unlike absolutism, and one is a relativist when having different views on what is moral and what isn’t according to Vocabulary. Do you find yourself to be a relativist as well, taking a look at different perspectives?
WOMAN AMONG STATUES. COTTONBRO/PEXELS.COM
In my class, we are all from different cultures and backgrounds and even races. I have always loved seeing and hearing different views from people everywhere I go, whether it is University, online or my family members. Whilst I initially raised my hand, I have changed my mind after being shown that yes, ‘’there are perspectives you haven’t yet taken into consideration because you were never asked this question before in an Ethics class, and you never had an Ethics class before either’’. Definitely taking my colored lens off and analyzing how my social conditioning influences my decision making and reasoning. So here I go, exploring other perspectives to bring myself and Aristotle some eudaemonia. We can definitely be absolutist on other matters.
Until next blog, feel free to like, comment and share!
I had this idea in Year 1, when we had to create a business idea for our assignment for Business Enterprise module.
To give you a bit of a backstory, I came up with the idea to create and develop a mental health app and my colleagues liked it. We called it EMBRACE, available for both Android and iPhone, aiming to help those who have a history of mental health and those who are struggling; at the beginning we decided to focus on aiding students through students as in making it available to university students and collaborate with Psychology, Counselling and Mental Health students who could volunteer in chatting with users.
Ready Made/PEXELS
These users could be anonymous or choose to show who they are, whether through pictures of themselves or via video. The app, we decided, features a forum, for deeper conversations to flow and connections between users to be established – and for users to also answer each other’s questions for a more personal feel. That is also a place where volunteers or professionals can take requests, answer questions, share advice and so on.
We didn’t think about featuring other therapies, like therapy through art at the time, but it makes sense today. A partnership with Artfund would benefit the charity and all the users on the platform: our users get the color therapy, we get the visibility for the app to thrive, same for the charity. The Student Art Pass is £5 but its benefits goes beyond the price. Ads of it on the app would further help the charity.
Think of all the inspiration you’ll get from seeing ancient artefacts, immersing in Virtual Reality, to artwork maybe you didn’t know anything about before so don’t be bored, be artful. All these experiences are waiting for all of us. I can’t wait to own one just so I can brag to my friends at every chance I get.
The name of the app didn’t make sense last year, Patrick, my colleague worrying it could be interpreted in a sexual way, but I see it now as a Digital Embrace. A digital embrace which can be extended to all who struggle with their mental health, not just students.
Sure, a Harry Potter coloring book is awesome, I know because I own one, but seeing artwork in person is on another level. Half of UK students, about 51% ‚’’feel anxious some of the time and two fifths feel high level of anxiety on any given day’’, says my ARTFUND brief. It’s becase you can go somewhere else with art. Even with a mask on, you could not hide that happiness experiencing Virtual Reality where you didn’t expect to, in a museum!
Painting in Photoshop is great too, but art in person is on another level. The Michelangelo you have only seen in History or Art books in front of you would definitely excite you.
Denise Duplinski/PEXELS
Who could believe it’s five pounds for everything it offers? Now I am sad I can’t form a club at university and form a masked group and go on an adventure. Museums and galleries being places so peaceful, that I am sure financial worries (51%), coping with exams (42%), pressures of getting a job after you graduate (54%) will lessen through art served as medicine.
’’55% of the British public live within walking distance of a museum or gallery’’ says ARTFUND, and I think it is about the same statistic for any other nationality. We make time for other things in our lives just not for forms of Art and we should change that in 2021. It would be a pity not to benefit from such treasures.
It isn’t what you think as fun. It isn’t comparable to anything you have experienced. At the end of 2020, ARTFUND discontinued their ART GUIDE app so you can’t see the goodies there anymore but the Student Art Pass is something you don’t need to pass on. I wish I could go back to Southampton right now just to get one and see when I could visit every gallery in the city.
I can dream that sometime in 2021, I will go to Tate Modern, in London. One thing I want to educate myself in is black culture. I have never been shown a painting by a black artist and that’s a shame, and I think ARTFUND can help me achieve this goal. They’re professionals after all.
Una Laurencic/PEXELS
Art has a new meaning now, in the new year as the museums and galleries need our support in all countries, to recover and thrive. There are 2,500 museums in the UK and whilst we can’t physically see them all, let’s start locally. If we don’t have art, what do we fight for? #AllMuseumsMatter
Like many have said, no one could have predicted a pandemic when putting together their new year resolutions/goals/vision boards. A day or two before the Solent University Library closed I went and got several books to keep me company, without a slightest idea of what was about to happen.
Alex Green/PEXELS
Borders closed, lockdowns imposed. All of a sudden, there were and are hundreds of things we can no longer do (if you do, you put your life and the life of others at risk) which never happened before in our lifetimes. We were literally ordered to stay at home and it still feels indefinite.
Cutting off work, all social activities – whether informal or formal impacted us all, no matter the age group. I imagine, (I’m not a mother yet), but thinking of how toddlers no longer had play dates, teens no longer being able to meet their friends in any shape or form, students had to remain in their dorms or go home (which is what I did, eventually, in July 2020), lastly – many adults were facing furlough or unemployment.
Whilst I can’t wrap my mind around how deeply others were hurting, I know my own experience. I was already having depression and anxiety before the pandemic due to not being able to pay the rent for the university residence I was staying at. Everywhere I went, I was turned down. I felt alienated, not good enough for this new world I entered and It didn’t seem to improve at all, no matter how hard I tried.
THE IMPACT
The impact of the pandemic on our mental health can’t really be expressed nor quantified by numbers and its effects will be surely long lasting, even after the pandemic is over. The Strategy Unit estimates that the demand for primary mental health will increase by 22% in 2020/21, as shown in their ‘’Estimating the impact of covid-19 on mental health services in England – summary of results and methods’’ report published in November 2020, mentioning that ‘’The next 18 months could be particularly demanding on services’’.
Alex Green/PEXELS
True, if we look at stats from surveys carried out on 2,011 youngsters with a history of mental health was organized by Young Minds Org in 2020, and the results are heartbreaking: ‘’Among more than 1,000 respondents who were accessing mental health support in the three months leading up the crisis (including from the NHS, school and university counsellors, private providers, charities and helplines), 31% said they were no longer able to access support but still needed it’’ whilst ‘’87% of respondents agreed that they had felt lonely or isolated during the lockdown period, even though 71% had been able to stay in touch with friends’’. I am very happy to see 11% who were able to improve despite the on-going crisis, stating ‘’they felt it was beneficial to be away from the pressures of their normal life (e.g. bullying or academic pressure at school).
MENTAL HEALTH HYGIENE
We all can work on our mental health hygiene. It’s very important to talk about what you think and feel, even if you don’t have a significant other, whatever the age, even if you don’t have any friends (which I know how it feels like). You can still form a support bubble with another household, like a neighbor you enjoy talking to, back when there was ‘’normalcy’’.
Gabby K/PEXELS
Managing stress won’t be getting any easier, but we can get tougher. Stressors like taking care of someone who is ill, or experiencing loss of any kind can take its toll on you, so reaching out to family members or a service is still important. WELLTEQ recommends cutting off screen time before bed, (phones, tv’s, laptops). You can try to put those away in another room so that you aren’t tempted to check any emails in your bedroom, at least an hour before bed time.
Start journaling as a way of releasing the steam from your emotion factory, and try to go to bed earlier than later. If you are staying up, you’re either a student with 3 days to a deadline, or binge-watching ‘’Bridgerton’’ on Netflix – then you have my blessing to stay up, the rest of you lot go to bed!
MEDITATION – BENEFITS ON OUR PSYCHE
The benefits of meditation can’t be denied, as it was proven to improve self-worth, memory and concentration, increase creativity, (Upwell Health, n.d.), you’d even score higher on assignments or speed in which you solve puzzles, and it can bring you inner peace – if you get yourself to do it.
Elly Fairytale/PEXELS
Don’t worry, you don’t need to spend money on it, it is readily available on YouTube. Start with guided meditation videos. At first, you may have issues concentrating on being still, because it is hard to master your own mind, telling your mind to quiet down won’t work from first try but keep at it. I’ve researched mental health apps in Year 1 for an assignment, and found an article from MS-UK featuring the 11 best apps for mental health which may help you, link here: https://www.ms-uk.org/blog-11-best-mental-health-apps
MUSIC AND GETTING CREATIVE
Other than meditating, music and getting creative is very important – to get those skills you have in motion. We all have more time than usual, so use it creatively. There are so many podcasts on Spotify, all my follows are on entrepreneurs and Law of Attraction, because the film The Secret got me into it. It is the perfect time to consider and start an online business, as more and more people grow tired of depending on being paid by someone else.
Daria Shevtsova/PEXELS
Music helps us tremendously, it lowers stress, it stimulates the brain, releases endorphins when listening to our favorite bands, in a 2019 study by Healthline, people were found to be more motivated to learn when they expected to listen to a song as their reward.
What helped me recover was wanting to recover and working on assignments as it gave me purpose. Another, was the drive to get creative.
So much that I want for 2021 to go back to painting in Adobe Photoshop and write my novel ideas, no matter how much time it consumes. It could be that you own a watercolor palette you never used before, so just go buy the brushes if you don’t have them already. Create your own daily routine to include something funny, something stimulating like music, something calming, like meditating or prayer, and something soothing, like a book (Audible or Waterstones, or both), fitness – like dancing or exercising (both can be found on YouTube).
Abigail Lee/BEHANCE
STILL BORED? THE SOLUTION
Artfund is a charity that connects us with museums, and offers a Student Art Pass for only £5, so all students should get it for the multitude of experiences you get from using it. Think of all the inspiration you’ll get from seeing ancient artefacts, immersing in Virtual Reality, to artwork maybe you didn’t know anything about before. Doing this you’ll help a gallery or museum stay open, because #AllMuseumsMatter.
I decided to take the ‘’How dirty is your closet’’ quiz created by ThredUP, world’s largest online consignment and thrift store, not knowing what to expect. My result was ‘’You are a Green Queen’’ which I totally am! The only think missing from the picture was a crown icon, the least they could do. Do I really have to crown myself?
But in all seriousness, do we know how dirty our closets are? Do we know who made our clothes, for example, in what conditions, wages workers had? We have seen Boohoo who was dropped by its partners Next, Asos, Zalado after allegations of unsafe conditions and low pay came to light. ‘’Financial Times found that labor exploitation in Leicester factories was rife, describing it as being like a “country within a country”(Forbes, 2020).
We don’t know how far spread modern slavery and forced labour really are. Boohoo is probably just the tip of the iceberg that the pandemic pulled to the surface and social media spread it like fire. Will youngsters change their buying habits? From what I see in the Public Relations and Communications Management classes, I’d say that yes, they are and will. As far as Boohoo is concerned, they face an investigation on the allegations so I hope justice to be served soon.
Forced labour is a topic that People Tree’s CEO and founder Safia Minney didn’t shy away from. She’s created a vimeo account and filmed several videos on different topics which one couldn’t believe we still have to confront in 2020. Bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking, sexual harassment and intimidation are topics for other videos on her account.
These are some of the things that made me even more sensible to the environmental impact of my closet and since I don’t want my clothes to impact the rivers and oceans, I’ve found Coral Ball and Guppy Friend through stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray. These washing bags help with catching fibers and microplastics so that laundry will indeed be clean.
How dirty is your closet? Have you gotten your result? Let me know in the comments below, looking forward to building on the conversation because we learn from one another. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t a Green King or Queen but do something everyday that will help the environment.
‘’Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year. And washing some types of clothes sends thousands of bits of plastic into the ocean’’ (Weforum, 2020). Here are my fashion rambles.
Something needs to be changed at a global level, we need better laws for the environment immediately but big companies seem to be stuck in their own world, companies like H&M, but I think manufacturers are happy nonetheless. Good for their business, yes, but the masses of plastics, even car tires and fishing nets floating in our oceans, the clothes that end up in landfill annually are actually bad news, the kind of bad news big companies don’t look at.
The fashion industry can drive change fast if they choose to, they referring to Zara, Asos, H&M. ‘’In total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year. That’s enough to fill the Sydney harbor annually.’’(op.cit.), and ‘’In Europe, fashion companies went from an average offering of two collections per year in 2000 to five in 2011.’’ So it seems we tend to get bored of what we wear too quickly for the environment to keep up.
Image credit: Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels.
One reason for companies not to invest in sustainable supply chains and processes is simple: it costs more money. It does have a long-term advantage though that probably gets dismissed. The revenues they get from five collections a year must be too nice to even risk. Worse, greenwashing is a growing trend. I had a look at greenwashing in Year 1 for a report, where I researched Simple Skincare brand. Greenwashing in skincare was more evident to me than in fashion until I read from several sources that H&M’s Conscious Collection isn’t so conscious.
Bravery is needed to ‘’the ‘fast’ element of their approach’’ (Well Made Clothes, 2019). Who knows how long it will take them to realized that YES, you can be sustainable and make beautiful clothes in superb prints, patterns, sizes and colors. If you want to. That is one thing I noticed in most sustainable brands, the lack of prints, patterns and colors. They need to get playful for sure. It’s probably a reason why it doesn’t appeal to customers along with the price tag. It does cost to dress sustainably, but so is having a dirty closet which leaks polyester into rivers and oceans.
Are lawmakers going to wait for brands worldwide to get brave? Or are they going to take notice when plastic will be found in our drinking water? We’ve seen fashion pioneers like People Tree making way for other companies to create sustainable companies, with ethical processes and offering fair wages to their suppliers.
I love everything about them, even more that they use dyes which are ‘’ low impact dyes, free from harmful azo chemicals which are frequently used in clothing manufacture’’(Our Story,2020) and you can see how every order makes an immense impact on communities in Bangladesh, whom People Tree helped them increase orders, livelihood, improve communications skills and more (People Tree Makers, 2020). Their way of working should make all of us look beyond the price tag. For someone, it may seem expensive, to me a handmade piece that proves someone has a job, is paid and lives decently, somewhere in Bangladesh.
This country’s garment industry has been deeply affected by the pandemic, after retailers cancelled ‘’billion dollars’ worth of orders – including many that have already been completed’’ (Arun Devnath, Bloomberg) which ‘’affected over 4 million garment workers without a livelihood overnight in Bangladesh alone’’, retailers like Topshop, Kendall+Kylie, Primark, H&M, (full list in references).
One way to go about is boycotting them, I stopped buying my clothes from malls altogether. The quality from Bershka wouldn’t rise at the level of People Tree or Thought, or any other sustainable brand. I washed a t-shirt from Bershka by hand after buying it moons ago, (it had a giraffe illustration on it decorated with silver), and deformed completely. The brand received ‘’Not good enough’’ rating on GoodOnYou website. If you want to see how well your favorite brands do, it would be a good idea to see what rating they have by visiting their website or downloading the mobile app. Knowledge is power, after all. Ladies, let’s get information.
Image credits: Elena Niculescu, Leaf digital painting 2011
I read a lot of articles about business and sustainability and have a keen interest in preserving nature for future generations. People Tree, a company established in 1991 was the first company ‘’to be awarded World Fair Trade Organization product label’’(People Tree, Our story, 2020) – opened my eyes to the fact that there are entrepreneurs out there showing us it is possible to run a business in a transparent, ethical way and be successful.
I’ve come a long way, really. From thinking ‘’Oh, they’re millionaires, they afford fairtrade clothing and still wear designer clothing’’ (still true) but I switched mindset to ‘’There are changes I can make right now’’. Influencers have two sides, good and bad, depending on who is influencing you. Charity The Female Lead focused on exactly that when they ran a study called ‘’Disrupting The Feed’’ which showed it does matter who you follow and following positive role models like Michelle Obama whose story is super inspiring and uplifting.
Took a hard look at my own wardrobe, which – some years ago – a hot mess. I donated everything I didn’t wear anymore or didn’t like or the items I’ve outgrown and now it’s easy to manage. You have to donate if you don’t wear them and doing that review every year. I kept a lot of ‘’old clothes’’ that were in a good shape and if they weren’t(and fixing wasn’t an option) then some got thrown out.
Fixing instead of throwing is great also. I’ve gotten into sewing, and got proud of myself even if the line wasn’t exactly straight but still looks better than before, when it was ripped. I wear what I have too. I can do that because I’m not the woman who buys clothing a lot, only when it is stricly necessary to do so. I have bought a pair of pants maybe a month ago? If I will buy something, I want it to come from vintage/thrift shops or sustainable brands like People Tree, Thought or Siz Brand, or one of the few Romanian brands that are ethical like Loud Bodies, Sense, Fandacsia or Musette. I don’t want my clothes to impact the environment.
Another example would be to reduce single use plastics at home, like Bonnie Wright, Greenpeace Ambassador, suggests. I didn’t throw out the plastic straws I used at the Romanian seaside earlier this year, back when we didn’t have to wear a mask everywhere. I took them home and still used them for drinking a Pepsi which I do once in a blue moon. We need to think of what our younger generations will inherit and the current state of our oceans who are choked of all that floating plastics. It’s not too late to care for the environment.
Reuse plastic bags that you have at home so you don’t accumulate a ton of them. Now, I feel proud of my University(Southampton Solent) for giving me a cotton tote bag at Fresher’s Fair, and found another one binned in my shared kitchen. Don’t worry, it was clean and came with some shampoo samples I loved so it was a win. Whilst I don’t know how sustainably made they were, but reusing them sure is.
I’m an Environmentalist when I argue about plastic use and styrofoam boxes. It’s simple for me, pastry can be served in cardboard boxes instead of plastic, and food can be delivered in eco-friendly boxes too, so when are they going to start investing in bad materials? When we stop buying. We need to recognize that we can really vote with our dollar, that we can simply inform ourselves of which companies are unethical and dishonest and take our money to the ethical and honest ones. So you can be an environmentalist too! If you want to still travel and enjoy Mother Nature’s goods(foods, landscapes), might as well work on maintaining what we have now.
Steps you can do now:
Sort your trash (paper, cardboard, glass)
Reuse plastic straws and switch to glass/metal ones from Package Free Shop, reuse plastic bags whenever possible instead of buying another one;
Donate clothing that you don’t wear, outgrown, no longer like, doesn’t fit;
Do you want to know how to become the hero of your colleagues? Read on and apply!
Managers have a tough job, managing a team and a company with a second wave of lockdown as icing. In the previous blog post on ‘’virtual teams and effective communication’’ there were a few points on the benefits of remote working but working remotely has its own cons:
It can be stressful
One of the most important aspects to remember (as a manager or team leader) is to not give a member of staff a lot of tasks to accomplish in one day, if it is necessary make sure the load is not as heavy the next day, in order to maintain a balance.
It can feel dehumanizing
‘’How can the language you use when talking to remote workers make them feel better connected? Empathy might help your organization get there. When using such dehumanizing modes of communication as email, word choice becomes your only conduit for empathy. Choose your words with care. Belinda Parmar, CEO of London-based The Empathy Business, a global consultancy that specialises in the measurement of empathy, writes in a thoughtfully worded email: “Empathy is good for business and for employees—and in a remote office environment, empathy is key to survival.’’(Zendesk, 2020).
Higher risk of feeling/getting distracted
Each member of the team needs to have some sort of schedule or worksheet for the day ahead and know what goals they work towards; having a meeting every day at a certain time agreed with everyone either at the beginning or end of the day can help. Also, asking them to turn off mobiles will also help reduce distractions.
Higher risk of lacking community
When working remotely it can get robotic and lonely so it is important to remind them that they aren’t alone and that they can reach out whenever they need. Assigning a mentor to staffers, or hiring a Chief Happiness Officer will help create a team of people who feel like a family at work. Remember they are human, make them smile with a short message or email like Rebecca Longbottom does for her team, ‘’ find out what’s on their mind – what’s making them happy or troubled, what they’re looking forward to, and what they might dread’’ (PRWEEK, 2020). Don’t forget to have fun with games like the Pip Wilson’s Blob Tree(psycho-emotional test) or know how things are going with a ‘’fist check’’ where ‘’On Bryan’s team at BELAY, they use a “fist to five” system. When the team needs a quick read on how people are feeling about a topic, they ask participants to use their hand to put up a fist (a 0 on the comfort scale), or five fingers (a full-fledged approval) to show their acceptance. If most people are a five, you know things are going pretty well. Easy forms of feedback like this will help monitor morale even during periods of distance.’’(Forbes, 2020).
Higher risk of missunderstandings
For those staffers who aren’t native speakers in English it can be difficult to understand, the solution here could be assigning them to a person who speaks or understands their native language and sending them translated material, making messages clear, avoiding jargon. Another would be using a project management tool with clear tasks; using clear, empathetic language. Avoid direct harsh words, find a way to deliver a hard message softly when staff made a mistake. Everything can be fixed but trust.
Dealing with timezones is not impossible
Geographically-dispersed teams are indeed a thing. Know where everyone is timezone wise and set meetings, calls etc. at the same time for everyone. Divide the team in two, one part has a meeting in the morning, the other in the evening if it’s more convenient for their local time keeping in mind their preferences(sleep patterns, family commitments).
Holding colleagues accountable and productive
While anyone can understand if someone is a few minutes late to a meeting due to family commitments or technology issues, not the same can be said about slackers. Even in a remote working environment it is still easy to see who puts in the effort and who doesn’t, with or without a tool to track performance. Make clear what it is that they have to get done and in what timeframe and check in with everyone on how they’re getting on.
Online security and privacy
Have a written policy for remote working. Everyone, no matter how big or small, can use a password manager which come with premium features like LASTPASS. It stores all the passwords for you, generates strong ones to withstand hacking, and auto-fills them for you.
Using a different browser than the one used for personal things so that sharing anything personal is reduced to a minimum.
Disconnecting from work
Managers have to check that their colleagues don’t work more than the hours agreed on – ‘’remote workers think that they are very productive and keep doing work for long hours’’(Designhill, 2020). Remind all colleagues to set time aside for healthy eating, keeping hydrated, exercising, hobbies, family and rest because it’s easy to forget to eat or other personal needs when working from home(one example).
Was the above useful and interesting for you? If yes, have you discovered aspects you as a team member or manager can bring up to a team and improve? Managers who cannot afford a mentor or a Chief Happiness Officer like Rebecca, can become one themselves. You could:
Develop a health and wellness committee that can focus on bringing wellness resources into the workplace.
Review your company’s mental health resources for potential psychological safety practices, resources and tools to share with employees.
Bring mental health experts into the workplace to host seminars on stress management, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution.
Get trained in Mental Health First Aid at Work so your employees can recognize the signs and symptoms of a mental illness or substance use among colleagues and respond appropriately. Email our team at MHFAatWork@TheNationalCouncil.org for more information.
Once these tips are put into practice will benefit employers and employees and build the community that business books talk about. You’ll be the hero/ine of the team and your company will thrive long-term!
Due to the global pandemic and rules of the lockdowns, employers face new challenges: making their businesses present in the online environment, move a lot of their activities from office-based to home-based, legal aspects and ensuring productivity and an effective communication to attain goals.
When it comes to the legal aspects of home working consider wether or not monitoring staff is necessary as serious reasons are required. Ensure that there aren’t any missunderstandings. If staff find out they are monitored without their consent they could seek legal counsel(Frettens, 2020). Chris Dobbs (Employment Solicitor) mentions that ‘’The employer could be facing a constructive dismissal claim. The use of surveillance, particularly if it is personal or invasive, could well amount to a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence’’(Frettens, 2020) so having a clear written policy will help avoiding those cases.
What is a virtual team? Many employers couldn’t even imagine what a virtual team is supposed to look like because they could enjoy office life unbothered, but the pandemic changed that. My Facebook friends who are business consultants in various domains(sales, copywriting, reiki) are probably the happiest in this circumstance due to being home based for several years and enjoying handling geographically dispersed teams.
Firstly, a definition of what is a virtual team: ‘’A virtual team is a group of workers who communicate and work together using digital tools. While they can be located in the same physical space, virtual teams are often distributed, working remotely in different parts of the city, state or country—even on the other side of the world!’’(Project Manager,2020) and according to Ariel Lopez from Project Manager there are ‘’several varieties’’ of virtual teams: networked, parallel, product development, service, management teams depending on the roles, objectives of your staff.
Each employee should know what they are working toward. Set clear objectives which are easy to follow, share the company vision. Give them a list of responsibilities or have them create a daily report in Google spreadsheets which is easy to fill in, or allow them to work creatively and at their own pacing. Same goes for new hires except you could act as their mentor or assign one for them.
After objectives are set, what employers or managers need to do is ensuring that each staff member is okay with that is needed of them, that everything is understood including legalities regarding working from home. Instead of monitoring staff members managers could & should check-in regularly not just for work matters but how they are really doing, as this strengthens the relationship for the long-term with each colleague.
That can be achieved with the help of Skype(where a group chat for all teammates can be created) or Microsoft Teams(allows users to create a meeting and invite colleagues to join with chat included) or the ever popular Zoom. Being a Year 2 PR student it was a weird first two weeks on Microsoft Teams till we all got used with it so allow for some time to adjust to the new way of working. Platforms like Microsoft Teams and Project Manager help with keeping personal information safe.
What are the benefits of working remotely? Remote working has been on an increasing trend around the world. ‘’According to a 2019 study by IWG, 70% of professionals work remotely in some capacity at least once a week, with 53% doing so for half the week.’’(Project Manager, 2020).
In the chart below provided by Statista where 52% of respondents aged 21 and older who work remotely or have the option to claimed that it increased productivity, but for an employer it also means a huge saving in rent, heating and other amenities. For workers who are parents it also means being closer to their children having an easier time supervising them.
Now, what makes communication effective in a virtual team? Concise messages. Be straightforward and avoid lengthy emails and instead use facetime. Managers don’t have the luxury of seeing face to face with their colleagues so it’s best to create an atmosphere of trust and warmth that the team needs when working remotely through scheduled calls. There’s plenty of room for having fun in meetings using the whiteboard in MS Teams for example, or Mural like Laurel Farrer(Distribute Consulting) does for decision making (Designhill, 2020).
Since I mentioned that I have some Facebook friends who are business owners I’ve decided to mini-interview them for this blog and find out how they handle the virtual teams of their clients(like Emily Fisher does) or like Christine Hayes, who wanted to include two perspectives: the corporate side and having a online based business and manage literally geographically-dispersed teams. Unintentionally, they share the word ‘’aligned’’ in their brand names.
Emily handles a team of 10 for her client and she is a mindset expert, founder of the ‘’Aligned CEO’’ brand. What she does: ‘’ I provide business coaching and strategy consultations to a range of businesses from multi-million dollar brick-and-mortars to purpose-driven startups’’ and how she does it, in her own words: ‘’ I’ve had to rely more on digital platforms like Slack, Voxer and Zoom than ever before. I have started encouraging co-working sessions via zoom and casual check-ins throughout the work week. I have even started using something I call an “integrity check”, where I ensure that everyone on the team: knows what is being asked of them, feels empowered to do their tasks, and has an opportunity to ask for help or resolve any frustrations that they might be feeling. These checks have dramatically increased productivity and have led to a substantially more communicative environment between teams.’’
On how to ensure effective communication, she added: ‘’I have started to emphasize the overarching goals and the way in which tasks are interconnected. We have seen that an understanding of dependent tasks and workflow has led to faster response rates and more collaboration than in previous deployments’’.
Emily Fisher can be found on Instagram and is currently redesigning her website.
Christine Hayes is the CEO of ‘’The Aligned Soul’’ and she is an author and mentor. She has managed teams based in New York, Texas, Canada and other parts of the world as well as her own. Here’s what she shared:
‘’For me virtual teams have always been apart of my life. In running a growing 100% virtual corporation and when I was a leader in Corporate America leading high performing virtual teams was my everyday reality.
What I have found is key to effective communication and high productivity are the following:
1. Communicating to the collective team Clearly and Often
2. Maintaining an OPEN DOOR (phone/messaging) policy
3. Allowing people to work in a way that felt best for them.
(1) With virtual teams, it is important to create connection and community within the team. I love to do this by communicating to the group as a whole clearly and often.
(2) Additionally, it is imperative that everyone on my team know that no question is a “stupid question” except for the question that isn’t asked. This empowers them to feel comfortable to ask whatever comes up and understand that it is a SAFE SPACE for them no matter what.
(3) Finally, it is very important for leaders to remember that people are UNIQUE. This means that some work well during the day, some work well at night, some may need breaks in between, others may like to soldier through.
By allowing your team to work in the way that is best for them within reason of course, creates an environment where everyone can thrive. You receive each person’s work when they are at their highest and most productive and results in more efficient more effective work.’’
Christine Michelle, Founder and CEO of The AlignedSoul by ana-hob®, Inc and former Corporate Leader with The Coca-Cola Company & Victoria’s Secret.
In marketing, attitude is defined as: ”a relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols” (Hogg, & Vaughan 2005, p. 150) and it has been observed and that consumer’s beliefs are part of a tricomponent model where: a consumer’s beliefs about, feelings about, and behavioral intentions are inderdependent & combined together influence the consumer’s reaction toward a service, object, brand, store.
Attitudes and beliefs, as I observed in class, do tie in with a previous session on the role of conditioning in marketing(operant and classical) through one of the four functional theories of attitudes: utilitarian function – which talks about reward and punishment.
This is just a piece of the pie, though. They say, ”get in the mind of the consumer”. That means understanding our own behavioral patterns and the attitudes and bias we have toward other people ie color of the skin, certain products like tampons, etc.
1. Brands need to step up their game from the beginning, early on in the thinking process of creating a product or service they have to keep in mind the needs of their target audience, how they act, think and feel through surveys, market research, testing even, offering free samples. That is what the value proposition canvas talks about, so that you won’t end up in the statistic mentioned in the video: ”customers don’t care about 7/10 products introduced to the market”.
One way influencers test their programs or products are through beta testing, announcing that they are looking for beta testers for x program, oftentimes x program costing y amount amount of money or being sent for free to a limited number of people. This can be observed on instagram and facebook. Brands often do giveaways to raise awareness and want to gain followers and orders through such a collaboration.
2. Companies wouldn’t need to worry about consumer’s negative attitudes or bias toward their products if they are transparent and have trust in their product. True for @thehoneypotcomp whose founder and CEO received negative reviews on various sites claiming she is racist and that her products are only for black women to use when it was stated otherwise. She did gain lots of attention and sales were going higher than expected even for a day like Monday.
3. Brand owners and PR, marketing people can challenge, watch and monitor comments and replies on their posts, change how they do advertising – it would have a major impact on the world if the advertising industry wouldn’t promote unrealistic standards. Everyone is beach body ready, isn’t it? Or is it just models? You don’t see celebrities calling fashion magazines for their impact on women.
Bias and societal expectations, racism etc can be challenged through examples, stats, facts and kindness. Bias which comes in many different forms and programming starts at a young age. Female kindergardeners won’t see themselves as doctors if they don’t see women being doctors. Doctors don’t come and introduce themselves as ”female docs” or ”male docs”, police officers, engineers etc.
All this because I challenge the theory that says attitudes are learned and cannot be changed. Yes they can, it does require the adult to be responsible and to want to recognize a problem. Attitudes can remain fixed if it goes hand in hand with our beliefs ie single plastic use. We can all go and buy handmade honey soap from Lush instead of that $50 dollar sanitizer plastic bottle. *wink
Advertisers may not be psychologists or have studies in Psychology, but they sure do apply some psychological principles into crafting their adverts. I thought a lot about the immense thought that goes into creating ads and the science behind them so It kind of turned me off from walking that career path, unlike Tori Flower, who gave up her advertising career after many years of hard work.
Advertisers use Operant Conditioning and Classical Conditioning. Operant Conditioning is a theory of Human Behavior discovered by B.F. Skinner that talks about the changes in behavior that occur as a result of experiences after a response. We know this from childhood, when our parents either used Punishment, Positive or Negative Reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement is when we as customers are rewarded for buying or using a product and it is used to make us loyal to that product. Coupons (small and large discounts), vouchers, free samples, discounts, 2 for 1 are examples of operant conditioning at work; I would add companies and influencers doing giveaways here as well.
Negative reinforcement happens when we get repetitive calls from a brand, company where they ask us the same thing in the calls, this is one behavior that I see from bank operators and debt collectors. Another example would be from salespeople who schedule their calls at what are inappropriate times for us, in order to get people to buy from them by putting them under pressure.
Smell the fresh pastry
Now onto Classical Conditioning. This was discovered by Ivan Pavlov in his experiment with dogs, where he would ring the bell before feeding them until the dogs associated the bell with food and salivated when hearing the bell even if they weren’t seeing any food presented to them. Advertisers use smell, music, to try and get consumers to associate a feeling or a response to their products so that it leads to lots of purchases. Very much like walking into ASDA and smelling the fresh bakes to get us to crave some donuts and buy some donuts, or a high-end store’s scent which over time in our memory will be associated with that brand. Radio stations might stick to our minds using jingles and a particular voice to get us to tune in every morning.
Now I wonder, what makes an advertiser tick? Blogs like mine?
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