“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Now, I am not big on classic literature, but I think this pretty much sums up the experience in the Cross household since the beginning of March 2020. I wasn’t working for Britvic when the pandemic began but for a large hotel company and watched with apprehension as I saw Covid move from impacting my colleagues in Greater China to spreading across the globe. I was not impacted but I saw many old colleagues be furloughed or made redundant. I felt privileged in that time to have had the opportunity to join Britvic.
Joining remotely was very strange, I have spent years working a day or two from home every week but this was different. I was starting a new job, trying to get to know a new business, new people and it was not a day or two at home. It quickly became clear to me however that I joined a business that really lived its values; I had joined a business that truly cares. One where people care about each other, about our brands and the role they play in our consumers lives. I vividly remember feeling a sense of pride in all our supply chain colleagues who could not work from home but faced the pandemic head on to ensure that our customers and consumers could rely on us when other areas of life were so uncertain.
When I joined in September 2020, when there were some signs of progress, and the children were back at school -I have an 8 year old daughter Elloise and a 7 year old son James. There was even talk of returning to the office and being open for Christmas. The hope of being back in the office before Christmas soon vanished though and I only got to go to Breakspear Park once before another lockdown with the children being home from school. Words cannot describe how challenging I found it. I was juggling the home schooling of two primary age children and a new role, never really feeling like I was doing either the way I wanted. I put enormous pressure on myself and there were days where I just could not do it, one or the other having to give. Testament to the culture and leadership we have at Britvic however was that this pressure was all self-inflicted. The reality was that I was always told to prioritise my family, that I could work as flexibly as I needed to try and make it all work. Making it work was a challenge.
Part of my role as the Director of Talent is to work on our Working Well program, how we make the best of the lessons of the past 18 months as we return to our offices, as we reconnect with one another and look forward to a changed working life. I’m really proud of this work. I know it will leverage the very best of who we are and of our great culture. It will enable us to achieve higher levels of performance in the changed nature of the way we work. It will help us all make the most of the time we have together in our offices or sites while continuing to benefit from productive time at home. Providing a real balance for our families, friends, and hobbies.
There is work to do though. On our physical spaces of course, and there is some great progress there but there is also work we all need to do too. Individually. We must all take some time to reflect on what we have personally learnt about the way we work, and about ourselves. We will aquire new skills, working in more blended ways is going to be new for all of us - I was a Teams novice pre-March 2020, now I’m a master! And collectively too, we need to think about how we want to work together to deliver our best work, balancing the needs of our roles, our teams and ourselves. Be kind to yourself and take time to reflect on your learning.
Candice Cross, Director of Talent