Category: Aspectus

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  

One in four of us will be experiencing a mental health problem at any one time. Even more saddening is the statistic that nine in ten people who have experienced a mental health problem have faced negative treatment from others as a result.

To coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week at our company day today, our CEO Ali Turner signed the Time to Change Employer Pledge. This officially cements our commitment to help break the silence and end the stigma around mental health, and commit to a positive and supportive attitude to mental health at every level of this organisation.

Time to Change is England’s biggest programme to challenge mental health stigma and discrimination and is run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. In order to sign the Pledge we have submitted an action plan detailing what we will do, including initiatives such as professionally led guided meditation sessions for all UK employees, a mental health learners lunch and mental health first aid training. We hope that this will help to create an environment where employees feel much more comfortable speaking up about their own experiences with mental health and ensure that those that need it are given the support they require.

As Aspectus’s mental health champion, I’ll be working hard to ensure our mental health plan is followed through and that mental health becomes a normal topic of conversation throughout the office, dispelling myths and making it easier for people to seek support. No one at Aspectus should ever fear negative treatment as a result of a mental health problem.

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.