Category: Aspectus

All gear no idea…

International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated around the globe this week, commemorating women worldwide and all they have achieved.

This year the theme of IWD is #BreakTheBias – encouraging us all to break free from stereotypes and discrimination to create a free and fair world for all.

We sat down with five of our Aspectees, to find out what IWD means to them and how the communications ad branding industry can help women achieve their goals.

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

“For me, it’s about ensuring that people are treated with the same respect or afforded the same opportunities regardless of their gender. IWD is a way of us showing girls and women all over the world that they have as much meaning as anyone else on this planet!” – Jamee, Account Director

“For me, it’s an opportunity to not only celebrate what it means to be a woman, but benchmark progress too. I love all that it means to be a woman, and seeing others smash through the glass ceiling is a valuable reminder that the possibilities are endless.” – Ruby, Account Executive

“IWD is a celebration of the social and economic progress women have achieved through resiliency and a reminder there is more work to be done.” – Ivy, Senior Account Executive

“It’s a way for us to celebrate progress in gender equality today, as well as remember those who paved the way by challenging social, political and cultural constructs throughout history.” – Astrid, Deputy Head of Energy and Industrials Practice

“To me, IWD is about bringing equality to society more generally. Yes, we want to celebrate all the amazing women across the world and the monumental achievements they make, but our end goal is to form a completely level playing field.” – Tamsin, Senior People and Experience Manager

Even though the workplace is becoming more equal, there is still much to be done. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in the workplace as a woman, and how did you overcome it?

“A big challenge I have encountered is feeling unheard by older males. To overcome this, it’s important to remember you’re in the same room because you’re qualified and deserve to be there. Confidence is key.” – Ivy

“I agree. It’s important to believe in yourself and what you’re saying.” – Tamsin

“I’m not an engineer or a technical expert. I’m also usually one of maybe a few women in the room. Working in the energy industry can be tricky because people don’t know why they should trust you. You don’t need to be an expert in everything – it’s a good thing to never assume you’re the smartest in the room – but knowing enough and combining it with the things you’re an expert in will gain others respect… and they’ll listen to you.” – Jamee

“There have been situations in my career when I don’t feel I’ve been taken as seriously because I am a young woman. My goal is to say thank you for the challenge – now let’s show you what empowered young women can do!” – Astrid

“My biggest challenge is imposter syndrome. Even in a room full of other women, it can be difficult to believe that my ideas are valuable to others. Learning to trust my inner voice and have conviction is something that I’m still working on, but I can already see how far I’ve come working at Aspectus. I put it down to the flat structure and working in such a supportive and collaborative team.” – Ruby

What do you think the communictions and branding industry can do to help women more in the workplace?

“We’re lucky that in PR there are a lot of very incredible and talented women. I’d love to see more of them specialising in the energy sector, but both industries need to open those doors for women in this space.” – Jamee

“Our industry is female-dominated, so it would be great to see more females in senior positions.” – Tamsin

“Yes. Change occurs from the top down, so seeing women in leadership positions not only in our industry but across all sectors is extremely valuable.” – Ivy

“Talk about it. Gender inequality still exists – consciously or unconsciously – in many different forms for men and women. There needs to be an acknowledgement and a commitment to change. Thankfully I am surrounded by people that support this. Not everyone is – so as an industry, we need to ensure this stays top of the agenda.” – Astrid

“It’s crucial that the industry takes intersectionality seriously. We must consider everything and anything that can marginalise people to truly make progress.” – Ruby

What advice would you give a woman starting their career in the marketing industry?

“You will face challenges others won’t. And others will face challenges you will not. Commit to creating a positive difference while forging your path, surround yourself with people of the same mindset, and never be afraid to speak up.” – Astrid

“Go for it! You are more than capable.” – Ruby

“Your path might not look like the person next to you, but it doesn’t mean it’s any less.” – Tamsin

“As a woman, we often feel this pressure to act like the men in the room – don’t. Be completely yourself. We all have incredible attributes, and you don’t need to ‘be the man’ to get what you want out of your career or life.” – Jamee

“You may have a different experience than your male counterparts, but always be confident and resilient. Undoubtedly life will throw you curveballs.” – Ivy

And finally – who is your most inspiring woman, and why?

“My most inspiring woman is my Grandma. She single-handedly raised my Dad after her Husband passed away, then she helped raise my brothers and I when my Mum wasn’t around for a lot of our childhood. She’s 82, still works, and just really cares about other people. She inspires me every day. My work ethic, my morals – they all come from her.” – Jamee

“Definitely Malala Yousafzai” – Ivy

“My Mum. She taught me the value of hard work, how to be firm but kind and understanding – she was my teacher for some time, so I saw her a lot in a professional environment. Most importantly, she made me feel like I could conquer the world.” – Astrid

“Greta Thunburg as her defiance unsettles people (in the right way). She manages to shake up the patriarchy by refusing to play up to it, and standing strong in what she believes in.– Tamsin

What we’re doing to #BreakTheBias at Aspectus

Our industry has a long way to go to help women grow and succeed in their roles. While most of those in the industry are women, men dominate over 60% of agency boards.

70% of our senior management team are female, and we’re proud to be anagency with women at the helm.

Nearly three out of four of our Aspectees are women, and we work hard to help them thrive in an agency environment.

We’ve built an environment that ensures women not only reach the glass ceiling, but smash it wide open. From our highly regarded and successful buddy system, where women in the industry can support and mentor other women starting out in the industry to achieve their goals, through to a flexible working environment, paid time off for studing, career development, and an excellent maternity package – our fantastic benefits ensure that women are supported in achieving and being all that they can in every aspect of their lives.

Find out more about how we’re helping women in communicatiins and branding achieve their goals, not only on IWD but all year round.

For a long time, I’ve been pretty confident talking about my mental health. To many I meet, most will never know the extent to which it affects me. But over the course of my life and career, whilst normally kept in check through constant exercise and knowing when to consult medical professionals, I have been able to ride through the troughs.

Mental health is complex though, and no one person is ever going to be the same as the other. Stigma, fear of weakness or just different coping mechanisms is what leads me to believe, it is about putting tangible things in place to enable breathing space for those who may not be at their best, rather than a one size fits all approach.

As the old saying goes ‘Time is the most valuable thing a person can spend’. That’s why I believe the ability to know you have time when you need it the most is so important to our people. Particularly in this fast-paced world we all live in.

At Aspectus we have people who have joined as fresh-faced grads and now sit on the exec board. Our PR Week 30 Under 30 alumna is packed with brilliant people and our ranks are bursting with young, bright integrated marketing pros we really want to stay.

We understand that as our people’s careers grow at Aspectus, their life, circumstances and personal fulfilment needs changes as well.

We have celebrated engagements, marriages, seen people go travelling and come back, popped corks for house purchases, graduations, births and watched children grow.

At the same time, we’ve also been through hard times with our people, watching them say goodbye to loved ones and go through medical complications. Indeed, I lost my own mum after a year-long battle with cancer, just three weeks before my second child was born.

It was during this period, of trips back to Zimbabwe to capture last moments with her and during that strange period of grief, combined with the joy of birth that I came to truly believe time and support are sometimes more valuable than any paycheque or bonus.

I’m so proud to be part of an organisation that last month evolved its benefits program to incorporate a support package that will help all of our Aspectee’s journeys, across all our international locations during their time with us. We built it and launched it because we want to commit ourselves to our people and the challenges life throws at them and for them to know it’s OK to take time to focus on what’s most important because if you are happy at home, you thrive at work.

While it will always evolve, our Aspectus Life Benefits and Support now gives all our global staff, alongside an array of best-in-class parental leave, health insurance, holiday allowance, pension plans:

• A day off for big life events such as engagements, civil partnerships and weddings, house purchases and rental moves
• 12 hours of volunteering time each year, sabbaticals after five years’ service and support for further education
• We are also providing paid time off to all involved partners for miscarriage and fertility treatment
• When it comes to bereavement, we know it is never an open and shut case. That is why we promise six weeks paid leave, to be taken in any way they want (all at once or split over a number of years) – to ensure they have the time to grieve
• Mental Health Awareness training for every Aspectee on an ongoing basis

We are looking forward to continuing to evolve this as we grow, and our people grow. Because above all else, we want to be in their corner just as they are always in ours.

This week, a few members of the US team are taking over the Aspectus blog to share how we’ve been managing our new remote working lifestyles. If you missed the last update from the tech team on their quarantine hobbies, check it out here.

While many members of the US team are normally located in Manhattan, some have spread across the globe to quarantine with family and find a sense of routine during an uneasy time. From the outskirts of London to the heart of the midwest, we have managed to find peace and space to adjust to our new working environments.

Hobbies are likely things that have fallen to the wayside for most adults, with more pressing and less fun chores cluttering that slim section of time between dinner and bed. Now, with our new quarantined lifestyles, many of us have been able to work in more joy-sparking activities that previously took a back seat to the grind of daily life.

If anything, this quarantine has brought along many realizations of just how lucky we are and how many things we take for granted in our normal, pre-COVID lives. Easy things like ordering delivery or popping into a shop are off the table. For creatures of routine, like many New Yorkers and even more Aspectus employees, this period of uncertainty has thrown a curveball at our daily activities and schedules. Carving out time to devote to new hobbies, or little activities that help break up the day is essential, and part of the US team’s quarantine guide! See below for some ideas, and the activities and hobbies that are helping us make the most of quarantine:

Kylie Souder, Senior Account Executive:

• Upgrading my wardrobe and making new ‘friends’ in Animal Crossing
• Reading lovey-dovey young adult novels
• Getting to grips with working out in a small studio apartment
• Taking long neighborhood walks, 6 feet away of course
• Watching Tik Tok videos, but never making one
• Confirming there is always at least one pint of ice cream in the freezer at all times

Emily Sakamoto, Senior Account Executive:

• Buying a paint-by-numbers kit and recreating elementary school art class
• Cooking new recipes (Bon Appetit is my bible) with whatever we have in the cupboard
• Taking long lake walks with my fiance
• Reading Tiger King Reddit theories (Carole Baskin fed her husband to the tigers, don’t @ me)
• Learning how to play Backgammon and being an excessively sore loser
• Plowing my way through all of Elin Hilderbrand’s novels and dreaming about summer vacations in Nantucket

Sara Guenoun, Account Director

• Watching Katharine Hepburn movies on the Turner Classic Movies channel
• Discovering books on my bookshelf that I forgot I owned and haven’t read since high school
• Eating all the vegan and fake meat foods I can find at Trader Joe’s after waiting on line for an hour to get in
• Finally having time for home improvement projects, just be careful with that hammer
• Learning how to make the perfect stir fry — soy sauce is a must!
• Watching videos of my nephews playing together on repeat

Megan Rothery, Deputy Head of North America

• Cooking for my parents (aka watching my boyfriend cook for them) as a thank you for letting us move in indefinitely
• Pretending my parent’s front room is Equinox, and doing circuit training while they step over me
• Forcing my boyfriend to do vinyasa yoga videos with me
• Reading! Trying for a book a week. Highly recommend Pretending by Holly Bourne and The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker.
• Listening to all the podcasts – mainly Ctrl Alt Delete, The Deliciously Ella podcast and The Goop podcast. Gwyneth is very soothing right now.
• Walking outside and being continually mesmerised by blossom, staring hopefully at it like it will solve all of our problems
• Running
• Cutting my boyfriend’s hair – judging by the fact that he said ‘next time just shave my head’ my attempt at giving him a fade could have gone better

Alexa West, Managing Director – North America

• Inventing recipes based on whatever items du jour are in the fridge/pantry
• Finding new podcasts (and embracing podcasts for the first time!)
• Trying on-demand app-based workouts
• Watching online university courses
• Rediscovering classic activities like board games, puzzles, and dominoes

By Michał Ratyński

What is FOMO? The acronym stands for “fear of missing out” and refers to a nagging feeling that others may be having more rewarding experiences. This causes social anxiety which compels us to stay connected to social networks. If uncontrolled, FOMO can lead to more stress, lower levels of attention, or even contribute to more serious mental health issues.

Having recently focused on mental health at Aspectus, it feels like a good time to reflect on FOMO and what it can mean for professionals in our sector.

The phenomenon of FOMO has probably been shared by all generations but is it different this time? Many would claim that modern technology, particularly ubiquitous social media, makes FOMO a more serious challenge. Social media encourages us to receive instant gratification in the form of likes and reactions, which can often lead to competition and comparison with others.

If FOMO is – at least in part – down to the compulsion to stay constantly connected, then it’s easy to see why it may be of concern for PR and communications professionals. Our careers depend on being in tune with both social and traditional media, always looking for opportunities for our clients. We can’t switch off from that. Coupled with intense time pressures and a performance-driven environment, FOMO is a real potential risk factor to mental health in our industry.

Mental health awareness rightly becomes an important part of businesses. At Aspectus, we take mental health seriously. Just last year our CEO Alastair Turner signed The Time to Change Employer Pledge and we’re working on making sure Aspectus has the mechanisms to support its employees more through initiatives such as Mental Health Awareness Month and the Aspectus Mental Health Charter. This May, for instance, we encouraged our staff to commit to regular meditation.

The right strategies can certainly help us ease some tensions and improve wellbeing. Let me share with you some strategies that I use to deal with FOMO and anxiety more effectively:

• First and foremost, acknowledge the feeling. It is key that people are aware of their anxiety, study the way it appears and disappears, and they reflect on the triggers of the feeling. Noting down your feelings is helpful – this is something that cognitive behavioural therapists do with their patients on a regular basis.
• Meditation and mindfulness can greatly help to observe your emotions. You might try apps such as Calm or Headspace which give users a comprehensive experience of mindfulness, organised meditation routines and daily reminders.
• As PR professionals, we’re always connected to news streams but we should think of other activities which can broaden our horizons and help us relax. Apart from reducing your screen time (as much as it is possible), try some reading for leisure, gym, going for walk, or other creative hobbies.
• Practising gratitude is key to stop self-pity attitude or unhealthy comparisons. An interesting exercise I tried this year was to buy a desk calendar with separate pages for each day which I tear out to write down good things that happened that day, fold it up and put in a box which I will open on New Year’s Eve. It is an alternative to a gratitude diary, though with the same purpose in mind: to switch off negative emotions by collecting positive memories.

So, is missing out on some experiences sometimes a good idea? We might try to live up to the expectations of being constantly available for all the exciting opportunities out there, but this may quickly burn us out.

As PR professionals, we can’t disconnect from the news cycle, but we can broaden our sources. Reading something different from time to time can be refreshing in itself, as well as providing a new perspective, supplementary knowledge, or inspiring the creative hook for some content or a campaign. As an old saying goes: “a change is as good as a rest”. Perhaps, when it comes to the media, that’s key for PR professionals in FOMO.

Written by Amy Morley 

Aspectus has always been a company that cares deeply about its employees. Its benefit package which includes comprehensive medical insurance, subsidised gym membership and up to six months fully paid maternity pay, is, I believe the best in the business. Caring for our people is embedded in our company culture and our values and it is one of the main reasons I have worked here for over a decade.

However, we have until now never had a policy on mental health. While we are proud of the comprehensive support we have been able to provide colleagues and friends in an informal way, statistics on mental health are truly shocking. And we felt compelled to put more rigour behind our approach. According to a survey carried out by the PRCA last year 59% of PR and communications practitioners have suffered from mental ill health. A similar study by Mind found that after being diagnosed with a mental health condition fewer than half of employees told their bosses. This suggests that most employees fear that admitting a mental health condition will jeopardise their position at work. Less than half of employees (41%) said they would feel able to talk openly with their line manager if they were experiencing stress.

We want to ensure that all our employees, no matter what their position feel comfortable speaking to someone within the company about any mental health challenges they may face.

Today we launched our mental health charter and guide to demonstrate our commitment to creating a culture that promotes positive mental health and fully supports employees who do experience mental health problems by helping them to manage these. We will also be running training sessions for managers to help to increase awareness of mental health problems and ensure these are handled appropriately when they do arise.

We all have mental health and just like physical health it can fluctuate on a spectrum from thriving to poor. The good news is that in many cases an individual can have a serious mental health problem but with the right support can still thrive at work. As well as putting measures in place to ensure we spot the signs of mental health problems early we want to ensure anyone at Aspectus who does suffer from a mental health problem feels fully supported.