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Five red flags in a job interview that scream toxic workplace.
Thirty years of leadership experience taught me that toxic workplaces show themselves in the interview room. Here are five red flags to watch for before you sign anything.
Who gets the new jobs?
Sixty percent of today's jobs didn't exist in 1940. It's the stat everyone cites to say AI will be fine. But there's a part of the story that tends to get left out, and it matters for everyone who cares about equity.
We were meant to do this together
Belonging isn't a team away day or a diversity dashboard. It's something older and more fundamental than that. And most workplaces are working against it.
When Leaders Stop Asking
When leaders stop asking questions, they don't just lose information. They lose the plot entirely.
One hundred days in
We're more than one hundred days into 2026. I saw someone's post about all their achievements so far this year and immediately felt inadequate. A hundred days sounds like a long time and also not very long. Long enough for a plan to have lost its
The potatoes are in
Every year for twenty years, Good Friday has meant potato planting. When we had the allotment in London, it became an annual ritual. Digging the heavy clay that dominated our plot right at the top of Peabody Hill at Rosendale Road Allotments meant caked boots and aching backs, but also
Enough might be closer than you think
A piece of honeycomb, a garden full of bees, and a question about purpose and retirement
What gets measured, what gets lost
I've been thinking about competency frameworks this week as part of a charity project I'm doing, looking at leadership at practitioner, team leader, and service manager levels. (I'm a laugh at parties, honestly 😀) It's detailed, careful work, but the most interesting question
Already doing the work
When does experience count as a qualification? On waiting for permission to call yourself what you already are.
The ground isn't neutral
Every week I sit down to write this newsletter and I try really hard to put something useful and uplifting out into the world. This week I'm finding that harder than usual. I can't create world peace. I can't stop what's happening