Blog

17.01.20

Flexible Working: Equality

Flex Appeal and the fight for equality in the workplace

Anna Whitehouse is a Sunday Times Bestselling Author, Heart Radio Presenter & Founder of Mother Pukka; a platform created to share the trials and tribulations of parenthood and beyond. In 2015 she launched Flex Appeal to campaign for workplace flexibility.

“I have been freelance, or semi-freelance, for most of my working life, but it’s only as a parent that I’ve realised how important some flexibility is, and how hard it is for two parents to work full-time in office jobs.” says Whitehouse. “It’s rare to find a daycare that opens beyond 8am to 6pm, yet flexible working hasn’t been fully adopted or embraced yet because I think there is a fear, there is a fear of the unknown.”

Raised in Amsterdam with a Dutch mother and an English father, Whitehouse has a different perspective to most when it comes to working families. “In Amsterdam family comes first,” she says. “It is accepted that people have families and the support is there. In the UK it’s about pretending you don’t have a job when you are at home and pretending you don’t have a family when you are at work - it’s a lot to keep up.”

As a parent juggling full time employment, the turning point for Whitehouse came in 2015 when a series of events led her to quit her job as a Senior Copywriter. “I was coming back from work. I’d left the office at 4.59pm to go and collect my daughter from nursery and somebody got their briefcase trapped in the tube door and it put me about 12 minutes late for nursery pick up. And I got there and I was sat on one of those tiny primary coloured chairs meant for an infant and told off, and in that moment I felt I couldn’t apologise anymore because I didn’t feel like it was my fault. I felt like the system wasn’t working, not that I wasn’t working.” Whitehouse put in a flexible working request the next day to her employer and it was rejected on the basis that they felt it might open the ‘floodgates’ to others seeking flexible working. “That was when I quit. I posted on Instagram to say ‘today I quit’, with the hashtag #FlexAppeal which garnered an overwhelming response.”

Whitehouse decided she wanted to challenge the system and launched Flex Appeal soon after. A campaign to push for flexible working for all in a bid to reduce stress related burnout and increase productivity, her Flex Appeal campaign has worked hard to raise awareness, and encourage employers to improve access to flexible working, whether part-time, remotely, job sharing or ‘irregular’ hours for parents and non-parents alike.

“I started Flex Appeal pretty much as soon as I quit my job. I had around 140 comments from my ‘I quit’ post, so it had gone outside of my organic network I realised I definitely wasn’t alone.”

Flex Appeal quickly gained momentum on social media, yet for Whitehouse it was a challenge to get her voice heard outside the online space. “I felt I was looked at as just this woman shouting on the street saying ‘do this, it’s a great thing, it’s good for business’. I had all the stats, I could back up everything I was saying but I wasn’t being listened to up to that point.” says Whitehouse.

Following the Gender Pay Gap reporting in 2018, finally things started to shift. In 2017, the Government introduced world-leading legislation that made it statutory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. “The day that the reporting came out, I had an influx of emails from comms departments from the very companies that had kept their doors firmly closed to me.” continues Whitehouse. “It suddently felt like the world actually is changing, and I can help these companies to adapt so there’s nothing to fear, and that’s when things shifted.”

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission flexible working is the ‘primary way’ to close the Gender Pay Gap. McKinsey estimated that flexible working will help boost the UK economy by £148 million by 2030. Regus commissioned a survey around commuter times, and found that flexible working can help reduce carbon dioxide by 7.8 million tonnes by 2030.

According to the NHS, there are fewer deaths on wards that work flexibly. “Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust trialled ward-led rostering and the biggest breakthrough was a problem for the matron turning into a solution. Her nurses would text to say, “I’ve switched my shift with X, just letting you know” instead of “can I switch my shift with X?” If found this such a simple win for an employer. In a world that is already under resourced, flexible working - specifically empowering your employees to work around each other’s personal needs - offered a cost-effective solution.”

One of her proudest moments came when she delivered evidence to the Welsh Assembly on a link between flexible working and the gender pay gap, and how maternity discrimination feeds into it. “It was a huge opportunity to pool together all of the voices and frustrations that I’d heard behind the scenes from those following the campaign, and be able to actually ‘put it somewhere’.” continues Whitehouse. “We were no longer just talking to an echo chamber, and the week after that, flexible working was pinpointed as the primary way to close the gender pay gap in Wales – a huge achievement.”

Whitehouse acknowledges the challenges that some employees face in their request for flexible working. “I think a lot of people give up when they’re given an initial ‘no’. My advice would be to really consider how you approach the situation. Think about what’s best for both you and the business and present your request in the most powerful way possible. If that doesn’t work - wield the gender pay gap reporting at your employers. There are very few companies who wouldn’t want to be seen as trying to help fix this. Flexible working must be open to all, with people being judged on their productivity rather than presenteeism.”

Flex Appeal teamed up with three other organisations to form the Flex For All campaign last year, calling on the UK government to demand flexible working, meaning that all job roles must be advertised as flexible from day one (currently just one in 10 jobs are advertised as such). Last July this bill was read in Parliament. “Flexible working is finally being seen as something for all people, not just parents, but people wanting to live, people with responsibilities beyond their control.” explains Whitehouse. “People who want to get off the 9-5 hamster wheel, those who need or want to work the odd day from home, those living with disabilities, those with medical conditions, those with caring responsibilities. Getting funding for Flex Appeal is a huge deal for us and follows months of relentless pitching and outreach. We finally have a backer – a multi-million pound company who believe as much as we do that change has to happen. It’s a long road but we are finally being heard.”

For more information about the Flex Appeal campaign, see @mother_pukka on Instagram.

Words: Lisa Hassell
Illustration: Michael Driver

17.12.19

Flexible Working: Parenting

Tom Judd is an animator and co-founder of award-winning animation studio Animade. Set up with his childhood friend James Chambers in 2011, the London based studio make animations for clients of all sizes.

Since the beginning, they have strived to set up a working environment that makes them smile each and every day they walk through the door, says Judd. “Animade is very much a lifestyle business in the sense that we have formed a company very much focused around a culture that we ourselves want to come and work in and be part of". Working with their friendly, close-knit team of 25, they are proud that they have managed to run a successful company whilst never allowing the typical agency work and time lines and overtime to push their work/life balance of track.

“We are very involved in the day to day; even though we work in that world of advertising and tech on a global scale, with time differences to deal with, we’ve managed to control our work/life balance in the company, to fit around the needs of parents, as we have progressed into parenthood ourselves over the last 10 years.”

Animade introduced their flexible working policy 2 years ago, when Judd himself became a parent for the first time and experienced the challenges it brings. Before that the studio had quite a rigid set up, working 9am - 6pm. “We found that was working well in some cases, but we started to notice, certainly when we became parents ourselves, that it was something everyone in the studio was thinking about.” says Judd. It was especially important for him to ensure he was balancing childcare with his wife, and Animade managing director Jennifer Judd. “All the decisions on our policies were built with us being the first to try it - we were the guinea pigs! So this really helped for us as we were the first ones to work flexibly.”

Their youngest is now 2, and Jen has been back at work for a year after taking 12 months maternity leave. “We now split the week, and work 4 days each. I take Wednesday’s off and she has Fridays off and we now manage the pick up and drop off split quite evenly which has worked really nicely for us both.”

Building a studio culture that fully supports parents is one thing, but to see company directors prioritising their families in this way is extremely important and should not be underestimated. Animade now run a start time between 8am - 10am, and then accordingly the team can leave anywhere between 4.30pm - 6.30pm. “It’s just made such a difference to everyone, for various reasons whether it’s childcare or simply being able to offset the commute when it’s less busy.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly their strict approach to managing their working hours and overtime is in stark contrast to many other ad agencies and studios. “There are studios with similar sized clients and staff numbers who operate at the very opposite end of the spectrum - they have people working all hours, and pushing that old school ad world mentality, and we’ve often questioned if we are doing it wrong.” says Judd. “Maybe we should be busier or maybe we’re just going to fail with this approach, but we are proud that it has worked out so far.”

Placing the wellbeing of their team first and foremost also extends to situations where employees have needed to take sudden compassionate leave. Whilst it is managed on a case by case basis, Judd admits it can be very hard to plan for. “Each job is so different - you just have to be ready to try and fill those gaps and not in a way that causes to much knock-on effect for any of our other employees - and that’s always our priority, to bring in freelance support to fill the gap rather than pushing it onto the place of one of our full timers.” says Judd. “We know from experience that having someone pushing their hours is detrimental to their wellbeing. That’s how we’ve managed to keep the culture rolling - we are very strict and manage the company from the top down; we are careful to manage our own hours and therefore that has a very positive influence on our staff, the fact that we are always out of the door on time means that nobody feels they need to be pushing the hours or working late.”

With a growing number of Animade employees raising young families in recent years, supporting returning parents is high on the agenda, and they take a very empathetic approach. “It’s hugely challenging and requires a lot of thought and consideration, as things do change during the course of year or six months, but I think in all cases it’s incredible how quickly they get back into the flow. I think it’s underrated how much experience you gain being a full time parent for six months.” says Judd. “It makes you ready for anything, it’s a benefit, and should be seen as a strength.”

Embracing a distinct set of values in their studio culture has also brought about a marked change in the ratio of ad agency work to tech work they do, with a natural sway towards tech clients who share a similar ethos. “Working with the big tech companies has led to us attracting more tech work and these types of clients seem to have a much better understanding; a more relatable approach to how that work/life balance should run.” says Judd. “They’ve had to build work cultures to attract more staff as they’ve grown and they are working on a similar set up to us which has helped hugely.”

Whilst many companies wrestle with the idea of flexible working and question if it is right for their team, Judd is proud of how far they have come. “We’re so glad we went for it. It was the sudden realisation that we just needed to trust our employees and be savvy. In the past we have tried to put too much process in place; we would have too many rules and caveats and try and control the potential chaos I suppose, whereas really we needed to keep it simple and say, these are the flexible hours of work; the rest is up to you.” It’s a working practice that he encourages other companies to adopt. “I think giving them that; pushing that autonomy onto the team gives them another sense of progression for everyone in the agency, to make sure everyone feels they have more control over their time.”

Due to the success of their flexible working policy, the directors are now looking to increase opportunities for employees to work from home. “With different roles comes different responsibilities but we know working from home is another way for parents to be near their children and allow things to work easier for people.” says Judd. Both Jen and myself have often taken calls from home to make parenting easier; having the option to do so helps to reduce stress where possible.”

Animade have entered into an extensive period of hiring over the last three months to support the team as they have become busier, and Judd has observed that flexible working is becoming more popular in terms of what prospective employees are asking for. “When we ask questions during an interview a lot of the time work/life balance comes up; the idea of purpose.” Animade have observed a growing lifestyle shift around what truly motivates people in their roles - and it’s not what you might think.

“We employ a lot of people who have been in freelance roles where they’ve been making more money than what they earn as full time employees, but they’re looking for more purpose and fulfilment or flexibility.” says Judd, who argues that open transparency is essential from the start. “I think every employer is used to knowing that each individual has their own needs, and so being transparent from the get go can only help you. There’s nothing worse than getting six months or 12 months in, to find out that this person you hired has been striving for a better work/life balance or more purpose if that hasn’t been declared.”

With a clear structure in place for growth throughout the agency; from creative and production through to accounts, from junior, entry level roles building through to mid level, senior and then management, Animade focus on giving employees the experience and skills they need to progress. Adapting their approach to meet the needs of their team is a long term commitment. “I think the one thing that the last 10 years has taught us is how important HR is and understanding our team and their wants and goals; it’s the key to it all.” concludes Judd. “There’s always a problem to solve or something to tweak. We’ll never be finished when it comes to trying to create the best culture we can have.”

Words: Lisa Hassell
Illustration: Michael Driver

12.06.19

Towards Superintelligence

While much of the discourse around artificial intelligence is marred by confusion over how to separate science fiction from reality, the fact is that machine intelligence is very much upon us, just not in the ways we might once have imagined. Unless you’ve spent the duration of your career in design tucked away in the basement of a university teaching students how to set type in the old fashioned way, you’ll have a solid grasp of the impact of AI technology on our industry—from photoshop to python, it’s already everywhere.

Of course, it’s not just in design that AI and automation are having a profound effect; machine intelligence now permeates every aspect of modern life. While this has innumerable benefits, it also poses enormous challenges for society as a whole — from how we allow the data generated by our devices to be used by third parties, to the moral frameworks we use to build more complex forms of artificial intelligence.

These are the themes explored in the latest issue of Weapons of Reason magazine, a publishing project by London’s Human After All agency that aims to understand the complex challenges facing our world. Its sixth edition, Towards Superintelligence, examines how “Artificial Intelligence has already transformed humanity for the better, but its downsides are no less insidious than the plots of dystopian sci-fi fantasies that taught us to fear a robotic future. Humanity’s next challenge will be how to navigate all this uncertainty by designing systems and frameworks that protect us from AI’s potential dangers.”

To this end, the articles within explore the rise in the use of algorithms in modern medicine to detect complex pathologies, how the misuse of data can exacerbate historical discrimination and injustice, and the tech industry’s new infatuation with technology that can be implanted under the skin. It also takes a deep dive into the recent development of neural networks that demonstrate original creative powers and how they could shake up the art world—perhaps the first step towards the redundancy of the design industry?

You can pick up the latest issue on the Weapons of Reason website, or if you prefer to read online, all the articles are now available on Medium. Happy reading!

22.05.19

Helvetica’s New Look

After Gary Hustwit’s hugely successful 2007 documentary, the typography community, the design community, heck, the whole world assumed that the story of Helvetica was over. Anything that could be said had been said about the sans serif formerly known as Neue Haas Grotesk. In the decade since Hustwit brought the intricate practice of typographic design into the public consciousness, Helvetica has become the only typeface apart from Comic Sans that is universally known, and this universality has seen it fall from favour as a useful tool in the designer’s arsenal (in-house teams at Chanel, Apple, American Apparel and a myriad others notwithstanding) replaced by cheap imitators like Aperçu.

But what’s really been holding Helvetica back is the fact that it hasn’t been updated since 1982, meaning it’s less than functional in a design landscape that demands compatibility across multi-channel applications. Sympathising with this fall from grace and dwindling utility, Charles Nix, Monotype’s type director, has recently overseen the development of a new version of Helvetica, Helvetica Now, which boasts new glyphs, alternates and display weights as well as looser spacing, to bring the beloved font up to date. It’s still Helvetica, but it fits how we design today.

Helvetica now comes in display, text and micro, each with sixteen variations in style and weight. Nix and his team have redrawn and simplified what little ornamentation the original face had to ensure maximum legibility across applications. “Helvetica Now is designed to function flawlessly in a range of design applications” boasts the Monotype site, ”from large, eye-catching display text in advertising to hyper-legible micro type in multi-level information design. Helvetica Now Display is big and beautiful. Helvetica Now Micro is tiny and precise. Between the two is the true workhorse—Helvetica Now Text.”

Perhaps it’s time for Mr. Hustwit to shoot the sequel.

14.05.19

Offprint London 2019

From 2pm Friday to 10pm Sunday this weekend, the Tate Modern will play host to over 130 independent and self-publishers from around the world at one of London’s largest annual book fairs, Offprint London. Offprint runs alongside Photo London and began in 2015 as a one-off commission for Yannick Bouillis of Offprint Paris from then director of Tate Modern, Chris Dercon and his curator of photography Simon Baker. Now in its fifth year, Offprint goes from strength to strength under the stewardship of Bouillis who invites guest curators and publishers to handle aspects of its programming each year.

This year, Photoworks will be hosting a packed programme of talks conceived as an exquisite corps of programming in which Photoworks has invited the first speaker who in turn has invited the next, creating a chain of speakers “interlinked through professional and social connections.” The series will explore broad topics across the spectrum of visual arts, addressing subjects pertinent in these most unstable creative times.

Although Offprint trades in books, zines, magazines, CDs, posters, prints and more, Bouillis has always been keen to distance his event from the wider revival of the book form. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity for artists to reclaim their independence by controlling the dissemination of their work in an era that increasingly strips them of such agency.

“It seems obvious that artists and curators are pressured to fulfil the objectives of governments and cities,” he has written, “and that demanding galleries are no longer able to stand up for young artists in a market that is subject to global capitalism. In other words, when it comes to art nowadays, government and companies speak first. Somewhere between soft-power strategies, economic policies, and the luxury market, art no longer seems able to speak its own name.

“In this context, publishing seems to offer an authentic, autonomous space within the art community. Books and other publishing artefacts such as magazines, posters, and tapes are—in comparison to artworks—relatively free from public and market concerns. It is meaningful to note that despite the public and private funding cuts that have affected the art-publishing world over the past few years, artists, photographers, and graphic designers have continued to show a deep interest in publishing, finding alternative routes to creating and distributing art on their own terms.”

As a result, Offprint trades in works of highbrow conceptual content, not the twee or cute to which many self-publishing fares often subscribe. Expect to be intellectually challenged, engaged, sometimes baffled, but never, ever bored across three days of intense activity in Tate Modern’s turbine hall. Best of all, tickets are free.

18.04.19

Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition

In honour of the 20th anniversary of his death, the internationally acclaimed touring exhibition of the life and work of Stanley Kubrick is finally coming to the UK, opening its doors at London’s Design Museum from April 26th. The exhibition takes a comprehensive look at the extraordinary achievements of one of cinema’s greatest auteurs, exploring his obsession with London’s landscape, his on-set innovation, and his close working relationship with some of the most celebrated designers of the 20th Century.

Part of Kubrick’s lasting appeal lies in the ability he had to reinvent himself for each new film he produced, running the gamut of horror, thriller, satire, sci-fi, war movie and period drama during his career, and making each his own in the process. To do so, Kubrick fostered strong working relationships with design greats like Saul Bass, Hardy Amies and Philip Castle to create posters, props, costumes and sets that ensured his films were leagues ahead of other directors. 

In addition, Kubrick’s detailed, almost myopic focus on innovation in set design and cinematography led to the creation of a centrifuge set for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the adoption of NASA-commissioned Zeiss lenses to enable him to film by candlelight in Barry Lyndon.

Kubrick’s fascination with London also plays a large part in the exhibition. The director made the UK his home for more than 30 years, and in that time used the capital as the backdrop for his most celebrated films. A Clockwork Orange was famously shot in the brutalist surroundings of Thamesmead, while Kubrick studded Beckton Gas Works near The Isle of Dogs with palm trees and Vietnamese road signs to transform it into the city of Hue in Full Metal Jacket. Even 1999s Greenwich Village-based Eyes Wide Shut was largely shot in east London and Soho.

Whether you’re a full-on Kubrick nut, or just an occasional fan, there’s an abundance of material to get lost in on Kensington High Street until September 15.