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For the last few weeks I have been on gardening leave, which has been quite nice; time with the kids, project managing the other half to finish his jobs :) and generally enjoying being at home ( I have even been cooking!)

But it has also been quite an eye opener for me.  Now let me make a confession before we start; I love my work, you could say I have workaholic tendencies.   For me, a perfect day is one that passes in a blur, where it has been busy, things have been acheived; clients, collegaues, partners and suppliers have come away happy.  In short I have made a positive impact on someones day.

So, as you can imagine, I am used to a lot of communication, through email, phone, visits, coffee catch ups, lunches and generally, being a purple and quite a social animal, just being sociable.  So when I went onto gardening leave, I felt a little like a long term smoker must feel after quitting.

Its actually pretty hard.  To go from a massive amount of contact and interaction to suddenly sporadic contact and contact that is a little forced in some cases and just uncomfortable in others was very hard for me in the early days of this leave. 

Looking back on it now, I can feel my A Level psychology head wanting to perform a research experiment on the effects of contact cut off, the psychological impact on various work personality and personality types of this concept of gardening leave.  Is it a learned behaviour for example, do you simply need to go through it a couple of times before it seems to make sense, and has no impact or does it affect personality types in different ways.

You see what not working does for me, I turn back into an amateur psychologist :)

Luckily for my family (I think Ive gotten on their last nerves already) I start my new role in a few days, but I will be curious to see what your experiences are of this process.  Whether the expectation of gardening leave has been a positive, neutral or negative experience for you.

So my friends, comments?

Courtesy is not a dirty word

Before we begin, lets be clear here, I am not asking for a return to Victorian times, or some medieval notion of chivalry but I am beginning to wonder when common courtesy became something that we are scare of, something that is a dirty word?

I am a regular visitor to the Photo Espresso coffee shop on Victoria Street; they do a beautiful hot chocolate that sets me up for the day, and the ladies behind the counter are the perfect front of house team; they know your name, they smile with you, laugh with you and serve great drinks.  But today I watched as people, and these are grown adults, spoke to these guys so rudely I almost jumped in to ask if they had forgotten their manners...but decided against it.

It did however make me think.  How many times do you say please and thank you to the people who serve you, the people who hold the door open for you, the waitress that serves you or the driver who lets you in ahead of them in traffic?

Courtesy is not a dirty word, it is not a lesson in history, but it may soon be.  I am alarmed at how often I hear people treat others with disrespect, teenagers who seemingly wouldnt know how to spell please never mind say it, but then we are just as bad; too busy to smile, to busy to say thanks?

And then there are children, I am amazed at how naturally some kids demonstrate this courtesy and respect for others, my son's friend (aged 6) always says please and thank you, it seems like the most natural thing in world for him, and yet I wonder how many adults can say the same thing.

So next time a driver lets you into the lane, a waitress serves you your coffee or someone needs a hand with a door; paint a smile on your face and be courteous; it will come back to you many times over.