22 May May is ‘National Share a Story’ Month
May is ‘National Share a Story’ month so I thought I would share my story as to how and when I started Hands On At Work.
The one thing I never wanted to do was fall into line and do what everybody else was doing. Careers advice at our school, if you were a girl, was to work in a Bank, join the Forces or be a Nursery Nurse. Many of my friends went for the first option. I didn’t know at 16 years old what I wanted to do but knew I didn’t want to work in an office.
So I answered an ad in the local paper (no Internet back then) for a job requiring someone with a creative mind and artistic talent. I was duped, turned out to be working in the photocopying department of the local Council and then when I started that turned into counting paperclips as a Junior Clerk in ‘Stationery’. It wasn’t long before I was thinking ‘I can do more than this’. A few years later I started evening classes and eventually qualified as a Legal Executive and spent the next so many years at various firms doing Property Law and other legal stuff.
20 years after leaving school I realised all I had done was worked in offices – how the years roll on when you’re not looking. It was definitely time to break out so I gave in my notice without knowing what I was going to do and flew off to Mexico for a couple of weeks on my own supposedly to ‘clear my head’.
Someone somewhere must have sown the seed in my mind about massage because I hadn’t even really had that many but I found a course in the Cotswolds and my logic was that it’s pretty down there so let’s give it a go. That was just the start, various other massage related courses followed including the seated acupressure massage which is the basis of the workplace massage we do now.
This was more like it, a job where I could meet all different kinds of people and talk to them, help them at the same time and have some fun and laughter along the way. This is what it is all about bringing that fun and laughter into the workplace at the same time as helping people feel better, more motivated and engaged with their work. It makes such a difference. Yes, people go to work to earn the money but if they can do it in a positive environment then so much the better.
I like to try out new things, nothing major – no extreme sports here – I’ve been on a Competent Crew Course in and out of Southampton and the Isle of Wight! (not so keen on that one) had an aerobatic flying lesson (absolutely loved it) dumper truck driving (on a cold November evening in the North of England brrr..) been on a plastering course (wonderfully messy) done relief Christmas work at the local Royal Mail sorting office and delivered Yellow Pages to pay the bills in the early days of being self-employed.
When I’m not working I love to listen to very loud music, especially partial to a wailing guitar, I love to dance, Eddie Izzard is my inspiration and I love doting on my chickens.
I’m really proud that nearly a decade later we have a fantastic team of therapists at Hands On At Work who all really enjoy what they do and that shows through in their work going by the fantastic feedback we receive.
Here’s to the next 10 years.