In celebration of International Women’s Day, I’m here to talk about taking on too much.

Here I am on IWD, (wo)manning up and admitting that this week I took on too much, and didn’t get this blog written for Kirsty, our digital director.  She’ll not be best pleased.  It’s 4pm in the afternoon, and I know she wanted to put something up on our social channels in good time.   She hasn’t called me yet, but I know if I were a client, she’d be politely chasing me up…

Having worked with lots of women and men over the years, I do think this is a bit of a female trait.  People pleasing, saying yes, putting your hand up at every opportunity – whatever term you use, it’s something we are definitely more guilty of.

Why is that?  Is it because women feel ‘less’, and therefore must take on everything thrown at us?  Or, because we don’t want to admit that we’re simply too busy to take something on?  Mostly, we feel we must put up a front of being extra-capable, extra-brilliant and right on top of everything, both at home and work.

We don’t work like that at Clark.  We try to plan our time, so we take on the right amount of work.  We work with slack in the business so that we can deal with crises if they arise.  We know that missing a media deadline for a client isn’t just our reputation on the line, but theirs too, so we just don’t do it.

We do put our hands up frequently, but usually it’s to ask a pertinent question, or to ask for help – both of which are encouraged, and specifically covered at our new start inductions.

We know that everyone who works here has a life, and has to juggle lots of things daily.  Whether that be a client brief, print deadline, sick parent, or a school panto.  And we help each other take care of all these things and structure our business accordingly.  We work as a team.

On IWD, this is just one of the things that shines through about our mostly-female workplace.  We have each other’s back.  We get the job done.  We strive for better – not to make ourselves look good – but to make our clients or colleagues shine.  We do this by working together.

And thank goodness we do, or I’d never have got this blog written for Kirsty. After all, I have her back, and she has mine.

Happy International Women’s Day.