MYNDUP

Work friendships aren't unprofessional. They're protective. The research is pretty clear on this: employees with strong workplace relationships are more engaged, more productive, and significantly less likely to leave. Connection isn't a perk. It's a performance driver. A retention driver. A culture driver. And yet most organisations treat it as a byproduct. Something that either happens or doesn't. Nobody's responsibility. Here's what a good work community actually looks like. Not the away day or the team lunch (though fine, those too). The everyday stuff. - The person who notices you've gone quiet. - The one who asks "are you actually okay?" and waits for the real answer. - The "I'll come with you" ally before a difficult conversation. - The calendar detective who noticed you've had back-to-back meetings for three days. The most important work friend? The one who notices. - Who notices you haven't spoken in a meeting. - Who notices you're quieter than usual. - Who notices your smile doesn't quite reach your eyes. Because belonging at work isn't about having a best friend. Sometimes it's just about knowing that if you disappeared for a few days, someone would notice you were gone. What does a good work community mean to you? 👇

The best thing we can do right now is stop talking. Because when The Access Group employees describe what MYNDUP has meant to them, we don't need to add anything. Six people. Six completely different reasons for reaching out. One thing that kept coming up: the ability to find the right person, at the right time, in the right place for them. Which matters a lot when your people are spread across the world, from the UK to Australia. Swipe to hear it in their words 👉

Our Client Spotlight Series continues 🔦 This week: The Access Group. A 9,000-person technology company that made a decision a lot of organisations are still putting off. All because they have a Wellbeing Team who knows exactly what their people need. The Access Group made the call to move away from their existing wellbeing provision. Not to something similar, but to something entirely different. Here's what their Wellbeing Lead Stuart Parker had to say about it. 

☀️ The summer holiday job description nobody warned you about ☀️ (Written with love & exhaustion. Signed, working parents xo) - Chief Snack Distribution Officer. - Deal negotiations (‘one ice cream now or two after lunch?’) - Performance Reviews (dance shows, gymnastics routines, magic tricks). - Conflict resolution over whose turn it is. - Crisis management (someone's crying. Usually everyone.) - Logistics coordinator for six different holiday clubs. - Procurement specialist (goggles, buckets, inflatable flamingo, snacks). - Referee in disputes that started because someone blinked. - Hotel room architect (making five people fit into one room) - Chief photographer who somehow isn't in any of the photos. - Wildlife expert (‘No, don't lick that.’) - Personal chef whose menu is rejected daily. - Timekeeper ("We're leaving in five minutes." Repeat for 45 minutes.) - Translator of toddler logic. - Health & Safety officer ("Feet first." "Don't climb that." "Please don't eat sand.") - Budget controller: explaining why we're not buying something from every gift shop. - Taxi driver. - Entertainment coordinator when someone inevitably says, "I'm bored." - Full time lover x

Let's do some maths. The average UK employee gets 28 days annual leave. School summer holidays: 6 weeks. That's 30 working days. Holiday camps and childcare: easily £50-100 a day per child. For six weeks. (Go on, get the calculator out. We'll wait.) None of this adds up. And yet millions of working parents are quietly making it work every single year -  through annual leave, favours, guilt, and a truly heroic amount of logistical creativity. If the system doesn't work for parents, then the structures in place have to. So what would actually help? 📅 More generous leave allowances. 28 days doesn't stretch across six weeks of school holidays, plus Christmas, Easter, half terms, and the odd sick day. It just doesn't. 🚨 Emergency leave that doesn't eat into annual leave. When a child is sick, a childcare arrangement falls through, or a holiday club cancels last minute. Parents shouldn't have to choose between their job and their child. 🔄 Flexible working that's genuine, not grudging. Not "we allow it", but actively encouraged, culturally normal, and not quietly held against anyone at review time. 🏛️ Better state contribution towards childcare. This one's bigger than any employer can fix alone. But it's worth saying out loud anyway. 🤝 Signposting to proper support. Financial stress, mental load, relationship strain… the holiday juggle affects more than just logistics. Have the right support available, before it becomes a crisis. Working parents aren't asking for special treatment. They're asking for structures that reflect the reality of their lives. Is yours doing that?

Before I had kids: "I'm ambitious, curious, independent, funny." Now: "I'm a mum, a CEO, a caregiver, a cheerleader." When did I stop describing who I am and start describing what I do? It happened so quietly I didn't even notice. My whole identity became wrapped up in what I do for other people. And suddenly I couldn't remember the last time I thought about myself as anything other than the roles I play. But here's the thing: your kids benefit from seeing a whole person. Not just the versions of you that show up for them. ❓ Who were you before? ❓ Who are you now? ❓ Are they the same person? It might be time to remember. 📹 From our July Community Conversation on the tension of working parenthood with Kathryn Cettina and Kellie Nedelcoux Link in the comments to watch the full recording 👇

Managers are burning out supporting their burned-out teams. And most organisations haven't noticed. Or if they have, they've assumed the solution is expensive. It doesn't have to be. Here are 10 low cost ways to actually support your managers. Swipe to find out 👉

The job description said "line manager." It didn't mention organisational translator, emotional first responder, strategy interpreter, or resident answer-haver for everything from performance to personal crisis. And yet. Here we are. Managers are the squeeze layer: caught between what senior leadership expects and what their teams can actually deliver. And the pressure from both directions doesn't let up. Because the skills that determine whether your strategy actually reaches your people… they're not soft. They're the load-bearing walls of your organisation. Here's what we're actually talking about: - Knowing how to ask the right question. Not having all the answers. Knowing which question opens the door. - Reading what's not being said. The team member who's "fine." The one-to-one that ends too quickly. The energy in a room that nobody's naming. - Translating organisational decisions into something humans can actually hear. Managers sit in the middle of everything. Leadership decisions come down, team reality comes up. Someone has to make it make sense. - Creating psychological safety. The conditions where people can be honest without it costing them anything. - Not feeling like you need to have all the answers. The pressure managers feel to always know is one of the quietest drivers of burnout going. People skills aren't soft. They're the difference between a strategy that lands and one that doesn't. And right now, in the middle of summer with skeleton teams and everyone's holiday clashing, those walls are under a lot of pressure. How are your managers doing? They’re overdue a check in.

It's nearly time for July's Community Conversation ☀️ Parenting has a way of quietly rearranging everything about who you are, and it doesn't always come with a heads-up. Tomorrow, our CEO Kathryn Cettina sits down with parental transition coach Kellie Nedelcoux to talk through the parental identity shift. They'll unpack where your sense of self actually lives underneath the job title, the diary clashes and school pickups. Sound like something you're juggling? We're running 2 sessions so as many people as possible can catch this live. Sign up to whichever timezone works for you below 👇