The Spiral Chronicles
Thoughts on productivity theatre, work culture, and the inevitable descent.
Updated whenever we remember. Which isn't often.
Me Ranting
What Your Job Title Actually Means
At some point in your career, someone gave you a title. They presented it with a certain gravity. As though the words themselves conferred something: authority, recognition, a clear sense of where...
Surviving Work
Work Is Making Me Depressed: What to Do When the Job Affects Everything
There's a version of this you can explain away. Bad week. Difficult project. Clash with a colleague that'll probably resolve itself. The kind of l...
Me Ranting
An Open Letter to the People Who Book 4pm Friday Meetings
You know who you are. You open your calendar on a Thursday afternoon, there's a pristine Friday with nothing on it after 3pm, and you think: there...
Me Ranting
A Day in the Life of Someone Who Has Completely Given Up
6:47am The alarm goes off. Why 6:47? Because those two extra minutes are the only act of rebellion left, and they are savoured with the intensity ...
Surviving Work
Surviving a Toxic Workplace: What Actually Helps
It didn't happen all at once. That's the thing about a toxic workplace. There's no single moment where everything clearly crosses a line. It's a s...
Burnout
Am I Burnt Out or Do I Hate My Job?
It's a reasonable question. And the fact that you're asking it usually means the answer isn't obvious, which is part of the problem. Both feel bad...
The Sundary Scaries
How to Deal With the Sunday Scaries
You've tried ignoring them. You've tried staying busy, staying out, staying distracted right up until bedtime so there's no space for the dread to...
New Careers
Starting a New Career: What Nobody Tells You
Everyone has an opinion about what you should do next. Your partner thinks you should go for it. Your parents think you should stay put. LinkedIn ...
Work Hacks
How to Set Boundaries at Work (Without Feeling Like You Need to Apologise For It)
"Set boundaries" is the most frequently given and least frequently explained piece of work advice in circulation. Everyone says it. Nobody tells yo...
Burnout
Signs of Burnout at Work (And What to Do When You Spot Them)
You didn't notice it happening. That's the thing about burnout. It doesn't announce itself. It doesn't arrive on a Monday morning with a formal le...
New Careers
How to Change Careers (Without Having a Complete Breakdown)
You've thought about it for a while now. Not in a casual, vague, wouldn't-it-be-nice kind of way. In a specific, 2am, lying-there-doing-the-maths k...
Toxic Colleagues
Toxic Colleagues: How to Deal With Them Without Losing Your Mind (Or Job)
Every workplace has one. Sometimes it's the person who cc's your manager on everything, for no reason, constantly. Sometimes it's the one who take...
The Sundary Scaries
The Sunday Scaries Are Real and They're Not Your Fault
It's 5pm on a Sunday. You were fine an hour ago. You were watching something, eating something, just existing without incident. And then it arrive...
Surviving Work
I Hate My Job: Now What?
You didn't Google that because things are going well. You Googled it in the car park before walking in. Or on your phone in the toilet at 2pm...