The Productive Pessimist

  A-Level results day (15th August 2024) has, in recent years, become overwhelmed with social media posts proclaiming that "results don't matter!" and shouting as loudly as possible about business success stories who "weren't academically successful, but are now doing way  better than that person in their class who got straight As!" This bandwagon may have started as a genuine desire to offer comfort to teenagers who were shattered by their first encounter with a particularly harsh reality: that hard work doesn't always guarantee the results you want, or need.  However, it's now become nothing more than a particularly toxic stage for adults to centre themselves and their achievements - "Hey, look at me, kids, I f--ked up completely in school, because I thought it was stupid and boring, and I'm doing okay!" This does harm on several levels: 1. It takes away the pride and sense of achievement which are the foundations of self-esteem and s

Along with  co-production , lived experience has become something of a buzzword in recent years, and, as with all 'trends', people are moving from engaged curiousity to wary suspicion. At The Productive Pessimist, we work exclusively from a position of lived experience - but what does that mean, and what, really, is  lived experience? What Working From Lived Experience Means For Us Working from lived experience means everyone on the Productive Pessimist team has been through what they're guiding others towards understanding of.   We didn't just take a 5hr course, watch a couple of YouTube videos, or read a bestselling book. For example, I (Ash) have the following lived experience: . 22yrs lived experience of managing all aspects of rural living, including travelling 30+ miles for work, without a car . 19yrs lived experience with serious pyschiatric conditions . 16yrs lived experience in trans masculine experience and identity . 9yrs lived experience of kinship care, thr

  The recent riots and racially-motivated intimidation across the North of the UK, and in Northern Ireland, has shown one thing very clearly; that inclusion training and 'awareness' in the UK is failing. For those who have to live in a marginalised experience, especially where their marginalisation is very visible, this isn't news. It isn't a surprise. Even for white British people who face marginalisation because of disability, economic status, sexuality, or gender identity, the fact that "inclusion and diversity awareness and training" typically only makes discriminative attitudes worse . As an organisation working in inclusive practice, we at The Productive Pessimist are obviously very concerned both about genuine  inclusion, and the welcome and safety of all people who are able to behave with courtesy and open-mindedness to others, and about why traditional inclusion training isn't working. The primary issue we've observed is that traditional inclu

  Here's your eyes back - you rolled them a little too hard at the mention of 'trauma'. And I get it. I really do. It can seem as though everyone is "traumatised" and "triggered" these days, and, as a business leader, it can feel like something that's definitely not  your problem. The thing is, you're going to be very lucky as a business if you encounter anyone  who hasn't  experienced at least one traumatising event - most of us don't make it to adulthood without encountering trauma at least in passing. A 'traumatising event'? What's that when it's at home?! One of the primary aspects of becoming trauma-informed is recognising the distinction between a traumatising event, and a traumatising stimulus. A traumatising event is what happened to you - it could be something as huge as being assaulted, or caught up in a terrorist attack or natural disaster, or as small as someone shouting at you at work, or not being able to buy

  This morning, I should have been hosting a networking event alongside my business partner.  Unfortunately, I woke up with a particularly bad cold - far more than just sniffles and feeling under the weather - which didn't improve as the morning went on.  I asked myself what I would do if I had a "regular" job; the answer was "I would identify that I was well enough to work from home, but not well enough to go into a physical location." So, that's what I'm doing today, while my partner handles the networking event.  "But if someone's well enough to work from home, they're well enough to come in to work!" I'm not dying, and my vision is only minimally playing up (I have multiple active sight-loss conditions; it takes actual work for me to be able to benefit from the little useful vision I have left; that is compromised when I'm ill), but I am probably contagious, and have no way of knowing how what for me is a bad chest cold woul

  BBC Panorama Life School Wirral   (trigger warning for physical and verbal abuse, discriminatory language) prompted us at The Productive Pessimist Ltd to reach out as a matter of urgency to Life Wirral.   While the school has, rightly, been closed by the local authority, we have identified serious risks for any situation any of the leadership team from Life Wirral may enter into in the future, and for any attempt to re-establish the brand if re-education around both effective support and education for SEN children, and effective and appropriate management practice generally, is not provided or engaged with. The problems of Life Wirral aren't isolated. They are problems that are entrenched in British ideas of management, whether that is management of adult members of staff in a business, management of students in a school, or management of behaviour.  Britain is a nation built on conquest and control, and the Protestant concept that people 'earn' compassion, and their nee

  "What?! I've got to give one special group of people even more  time off - paid ! - while making enough money to keep this place going is already stressful enough?! Jog on - I'll just make sure we never  employ someone who's a 'carer'! They can claim benefits - that's what it's for, isn't it?" I suspect - even if you feel guilty about it -  that's how many business owners reacted to the Liberal Democrats' proposition of a  Carers' Leave Bill  - swiftly followed by relief as you realised which Party had put it forward, and how unlikely they were to ever be elected. Then a niggle of anxiety; what if whoever does  get in nicks the idea, because they think it'll make them popular with those in the electorate you secretly think are "lazy scroungers who just want an excuse not to work." I know it's how an awful lot of people do  think - because I'm a carer for my wife.  I went through the Covid-19 pandemic as a shi