The Productive Pessimist

  The current trend of advice and focus, particularly financial advice and focus, is "sacrifice, go all in on work, work, work, save and invest through your 20s and 30s, which is the best decades of your life  for compound growth! so you can have an absolutely amazing retirement, with enough money to do everything you want, and not worry  about money, because there won't be social security!" This feeds into a wider toxic focus of positioning work as "the thing that exists in opposition to the life we deserve  to live."  In reality, work is part of  life.  Retirement  is actually the thing that exists in opposition to life. The vision that's being sold is "if you sacrifice all fun and socialising, and just grind through your 20s and 30s, you'll get to have this wonderful, rewarding retirement" - but the reality is, many of us will not be in good enough health by the time we reach our 60s or 70s to actually do  much of anything.  Many of u...

  As with mental health , neurodiversity inclusion is going to become a very present focus for UK businesses in the wake of the recent welfare reforms. Neurodiversity is also  a deeply complex aspect of inclusion, which typically requires a tailored approach designed with individual businesses - not only is every neurodiverse person different, with different sensitivities, skills, competencies, and accommodation needs, but so is every workplace.   The Productive Pessimist Ltd  offer a range of inclusive design and practice consultancy services, ranging from £15  one off costs to £8,000  yearly service support; reach out to us by email at theproductivepessimist@yahoo.com , or check out our services page  to find out more. For this blog, will be addressing a few common questions and challenges on neurodiversity, and neurodiverse inclusion in the workplace. Isn't everyone neurodivergent, though?  It's just about "seeing things differently", and ...

  With changes to the UK's welfare provisions making it harder for people facing mental health challenges to get basic financial assistance without  an expectation that they will be pursuing employment, British business can no longer carry on its time-honoured practice of subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) pushing people experiencing mental ill-health out of the workplace, and people trying to manage even complex mental health conditions can no longer assume that they will be allowed to focus on getting to a point of reliable stability before they have to look for work. The burden on people experiencing mental ill-health is cruel, especially for those whose condition is not  "just a normal response to the challenges of life", and is, for example, something like schizophrenia, bipolar, or one of the Cluster B personality disorders , which can be exceptionally disruptive to the individual experiencing the condition, not just those around them. At The Productive Pessimist ...

  One of the positive - if the government don't fumble it, and employers step in to provide the necessary 'assist' - elements of Labour's Welfare Reform announcements on March 18th was the "Right to Try", where claimants, including those on Limited Capacity for Work Related Activity, can engage with employment they feel they may  be able to manage alongside disabilities and health challenges, without  the risk of losing their welfare support, meaning that, if they can't  manage the workload, or an employer feels it is not safe for them to continue, they - in theory - wouldn't be required to start a new claim (which, for those currently on LCWRA, would see them receive substantially less  than their existing claim pays, obviously not a desirable outcome for anyone.) I've been around long enough, and had enough interaction with the UK's abysmal employment landscape, and encountered enough of the toxic, self-important, ableist attitudes of employe...

  One of the  services  we offer at The Productive Pessimist is public speaking, remotely or in person, both as sole speaker and as panel members. One of the topics we offer public speaking on is that of living car free.  This topic is covered in depth by myself - Ash  - and centred in the 20yrs I have been obliged to spend living car free, with half that time spent living in small villages in rural Norfolk , travelling up to 40miles each way for work, in full time employment. How It Started When I was 19, I took my third - and, as it turned out, final - driving test. I failed, and in such a way that I was referred for a fitness to drive sight test. I failed this, as well, with the commentary that my peripheral vision was very limited, and I therefore wasn't considered safe to drive. When I'd failed the driving test, I had a severe panic attack, and expressed to my instructor that "My parents are going to kill me" - I paid for my driving lessons , but my Dad pai...

  TW: Mentions of su*c*dal ideation, su*c*de attempts ....................................................................................................... September is Suicide Awareness Month, with next week (Tuesday 10th September) being Suicide Awareness Day. Employers As an employer, you are probably never going to know if any of your team have attempted or considered suicide.  It's not something people are supported or encouraged to talk about in their workplaces.   It's actually still frequently seen as "selfish", as "undermining morale"  as "unfair to management and colleagues" for people to even mention anything more than being a little 'down' or 'anxious' at work. Even in the context of burnout, junior employers frequently get the response, when they try and raise how they're feeling, and seek support, of " Everyone is struggling right now. You need to focus on how you can help your colleagues." If 'ever...