One of my lovely colleagues made an small speech during a recent meeting. She was delighted to announce that she was heading off on maternity leave next month and looked forward to seeing us all next year once the pandemic was over. There were the usual round of congratulations and how-will-we-cope-without-yous. But a few of us were left a little blindsided. For the last 10 months, we've only seen each other through the lens of a video conference. And, while some people's call etiquette can be …
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I once drove my company car to my company's office and then drove around the company car park for 20 minutes looking in vain for a parking space. Whereupon I double-parked across a couple of cars, flipped on my hazard lights, and dialled in to my Very Important Meeting. Half-an-hour later, I drove home to think about my life choices. I then started looking for a new job. From the moment I entered the workforce back in the early 2000s, I've been in open-plan offices with a mandatory hot-desk…
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I wrote this before the pandemic. I chickened out of publishing it because I was working for NHSX at the time. Some of these things have come to pass. Some are yet to come. I'll never forget the look of horror on my professor's face when I told him I didn't think his university course was good value for money. I was in the first cohort of UK students paying tuition fees. A massive £1,000 per year. A group of us had gathered to complain about the poor quality teaching materials on a specific …
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A few years ago, Johannes Haushofer published a CV of failures. In it, he lists all the grants he wasn't awarded, positions he didn't get, papers rejected. I think that people need to be more open about failure. None of us are perfect - despite what our social media presence says - and all of us suffer rejection. But, by being open and honest about it, we make it easier for others to realise that they're not alone. In that spirit - here, in no particular order, are the recent jobs which I…
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I'm an ambivalent convert to FIRE - Financial Independence Retire Early. The basic gist is: Minimise your expenditure, Save 20x your annual expenditure, Retire early while maintaining the same lifestyle. That's it. There are a lot of crappy books about FIRE, but the concept is simple. So I try to spend a little less, and I try to save a little more, and I dream about stopping work while I'm still young enough to enjoy it. Of course, human psychology and habits are less simple. It is so…
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Another weird economic casualty of COVID19. I'm not wearing out my socks and shoes. I cancelled my train season ticket. And now, I'm giving up my mobile contract. For a decade, I worked in the mobile industry - and always had an unlimited SIM card. Rejoining the real world, some years ago, was a bit of a shock to the system. You mean people have to pay for phone calls?!? The pandemic has everyone reassessing their finances, right? Do I need that beer-of-the-month subscription? Should I move …
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I've made no secret of rather enjoying this enforced period of remote work. Sure, it has had its challenges - but there have been so many fringe benefits. Less commuting! No crappy-canteen lunches! More time to sleep in! And, today, I was reminded of another benefit. I am terrible at remembering names. Many a time someone has bumbled up to me in a corridor, asked my opinion on something, and I've said "could you email me and I'll send you more detail" because I didn't want the mortifying…
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How are you enjoying lockdown, gang? I think I'm coping well. Perhaps a little too well… I was having virtual-drinks with some friends, when one of them said "How many people just aren't going to want to go back to commuting after this?" I've always been a bit of a homebody. I work from home a few days a week, so the latest shift hasn't been too disruptive. I used to do all my shopping online. Groceries and gadgets all arrived by courier. So no change there. All my media is electronic - b…
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Dark times, my friends. Dark times. It's up to all of us to pull together. And that means making vital health information accessible. One of the easiest things you can do is make your Twitter content accessible is by adding descriptions to your images. Go to twitter.com/settings/accessibility and turn on "Compose image descriptions". Here's why. This is a screenshot of a Tweet I recently saw. The images weren't loading because my area's 3G signal is overloaded. So I got the same experience…
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In British culture - the handshake is the default greeting. It's as ubiquitous as a hearty "good morning" or offering to buy people a round of drinks in the pub. To deliberately not shake hands is rude. It indicates that you are breaking normal social behaviour. Handshakes are political. Back in the 1990s, the Prime Minister shook hands with the Sinn Fein president - leading to protests: "Traitor," they shouted. "Your hands are covered in blood," they barracked him. The loyalist protesters…
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One of the (many many many) things our team worked on this week finally went live: Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentYou can now access most NHS services from your mobile, with no data charges.In awe of the team who pulled this together very quickly. gov.uk/government/new…gov.ukMobile networks remove data charges for online NHS coronavirus adviceFree access to online NHS services will be available for as long as coronavirus (COVID-19) remains widespread in the UK.❤️ 507💬 17♻️ 019:30 - Wed 18 Mar…
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What started as a fairly ordinary week, quickly transformed into something extraordinary. Large swathes of NHSX were suddenly told to de-prioritise their day-to-day work and focus on COVID19 response. I probably can't talk specifically on what I've been working on, but it has been one of the most intense working weeks of my life. As is customary, here are The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of my week, The Good We have an amazing team of committed professionals. A wide range of skills and…
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