the flipside of publishing

In March 2024, The FLIP hosted our very first in-person networking event to announce the results from our workforce survey. We invited a range of expert panellists to discuss the key topics raised by the survey’s respondents in two powerful conversations, ‘Navigating the second shift’ and ‘Celebrating the next gen’. Here are some of their takeaways on these topics.

ON WORKLOAD AND BURNOUT:  

Akua Boateng, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: What has really helped me is learning about how I work, what suits me, how to get the best out of myself, and not just meeting other people’s demands - and in turn demonstrating that that works better for the book. Being able to understand how you work and then communicating that effectively helps you to establish boundaries that will ultimately help you to achieve the wider aims. 

As I've progressed in the industry, I've realised it's not heart surgery. If I don't send an email at 7pm, the book will still exist at 8am the next day! I think it can be really hard when you're junior or you're starting out because you really wanna make a mark, but do remember that it's just books. 

Amanda Ahadizadeh, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: It's clear that flexibility is key. There’s an expectation and a desire for increased flexibility, whether or not we want to tap into it all the time. That said, I think coming to the office is really where you learn the most, but having that flexibility is really important not just for productivity, but also for wellbeing.

Katie Packer, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: We’re all human; we have lives outside of our career. Our work is not our worth.

ON mental health and imposter syndrome:

Rebecca Sinclair, ‘Navigating the second shift’: Be clear on your boundaries and respect them yourself, because otherwise you're inviting everyone else to ignore them.

Katie Packer, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: It’s important to carve out those boundaries when you can, because once someone pushes beyond those boundaries and you've let them, it’s really hard to claw them back, but being firm from the outset is really important. 

Sam Eardley, ‘Navigating the second shift’: I would often see coming to work as a bit of a refuge if I was finding things difficult in other parts of my life but in restrospect I wouldn't really talk to anyone. I really like the more open conversations that I hear going on around me now. I think that's great. Trust your colleagues to support you: they’ll probably have experienced something similar to what you have. 

Akua Boateng, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: Right from the beginning, I always questioned if I was supposed to be in publishing. I remember in the interview that got me my first publishing job, I asked, “Is there anything about my application that would hinder you from hiring me?” and they told me I don't have any publishing experience. Being able to challenge that in the interview made me realise that you just have to confront whatever it is that is challenging you and realise that you're worth it. You've made it this far for a reason.

Amanda Ahadizadeh, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: We have a really bad habit in society of taking behaviours, gendering them, and then saying that the female behaviour is wrong and pathologizing it and criticising it, and I think imposter syndrome is a perfect example of this. It’s actually productive and constructive to reflect and think, ‘Do I have the skills that are required to accomplish this job and do it well?’ We should be encouraging that kind of behaviour. Why are we reframing it as imposter syndrome? Don't let insecurity hold you back, but dare to doubt yourself. 

ON MANAGEMENT: 

Dan Bunyard, ‘Navigating the second shift’: Managers might benefit from being what I describe as ‘positively inactive’ in the face of change. There's a temptation to appear and act in a decisive way and take action: something's broken and you need to fix it. Whereas I think often the only thing that's going to really tell you what you should do and what changes you want to make is time. The changes that were put in place when I underwent unplanned leave did damage my confidence, even though I knew why it was happening. Sometimes you just have to lean back, be compassionate, observe, and then see what action there is to take. 

Akua Boateng, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: Sometimes when you are managing a big team, you look at it as workload rather than individuals with individual needs. I think line managers and team leaders need to educate themselves as much as possible to deal with different types of mental health illnesses or experiences, because it's easier to talk about what you're going through when there's empathy and you trust people. It's not easy or straightforward, and you have to build that trust over time, but I do think more senior people should take more responsibility for these conversations. 

Rebecca Sinclair, ‘Navigating the second shift’: So much of management is about setting the forum and creating safe spaces where people can have difficult conversations. As a leader, showing vulnerability and being honest and being really intentional about sharing vulnerabilities is really important, and helps to prompt those conversations. 

Daphne Tonge, ‘Celebrating the next gen’: Sometimes a separation between a ‘work manager’ and a ‘people manager’ can be great. To be perfectly honest, I don't think everyone senior necessarily has the right skills to manage people. They're two very different skill sets and if you can do both, that's great. But I don't think you should just promote people just because they're good at managing people. Some people don't necessarily want to be managers, and some people don’t have that skill set. 

ON ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Sam Eardley, ‘Navigating the second shift’: The one thing that's really stuck in my mind from when I was returning to work is how important it was to talk to my husband about who was doing what. I think when you've been at home as the primary carer of a child, you fall into specific roles, but actually discussing explicitly who is going to do what and when is massively helpful. 

The most important thing about navigating caring responsibilities, whether it’s children or ageing parents - whatever your additional responsibility is, just be open about it. Things have changed so much in the last 10-15 years and we’re now able to have those conversations and hopefully we’re encouraged to have them with that sort of honesty. 

Dan Bunyard, ‘Navigating the second shift’: In that first period of having kids, you can feel like you're a less good version of yourself, like you're diminished in some way… I think that's such a sad thing that we all feel that way. If I can give any advice about it, just try to see it actually as an expanded version of yourself: ‘I’m doing more than I was ever before.’ 

on returning to work:

Dan Bunyard, ‘Navigating the second shift’: In the past when I've had someone on leave, I’ve always tried hard to protect them from any unnecessary pressure when they're coming back, but I've recently started to wonder whether in seeking to protect people from pressure, I've actually slightly done a disservice in not focusing on setting some goals early on. Confidence is the engine that powers everything that you do, and when you return to work from whatever it might be, I think your confidence takes a hit. And I think we gain that confidence by feeling needed, and feeling that we're doing things of value. Setting some short term goals to try and do in the first month, so that someone feels that ‘I'm needed. I'm actually serving a value’ as early as possible is something I want to focus on more in the future.