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My Daily Coronacoaster

Jul 31, 2020

An honest account of the highs and lows of lockdown life 

I got sent a meme a few weeks ago with the caption ‘Coronacoaster – One day you’re loving your bubble, doing workouts and baking sourdough, the next your’re crying, drinking wine for breakfast and missing people you don’t even like’ and it is one of the many (!) I’ve been sent, but one of the few that has really stuck with me. Not, I hasten to add, because I have actually gone as far as to drink wine for breakfast (or in fact at any inappropriate hour!) but because the sentiment was so apt. 

Lock down, for many, has been a period of reflection, self-realisation and an opportunity, away from the hustle and bustle of life, to understand emotions when all the noise is stripped away. And my major learning from this period… is that my emotions are bonkers! The scale and magnitude of the crisis that engulfed us overnight made dealing with the small things seem huge, and tackling the huge things seem insignificant. The world was tipped on it’s head leaving me not knowing if I was coming or going. I think it’s safe to say the lows felt pretty diabolical, but the highs bizarrely incredible. 

I found myself switching from a reality of not seeing my family and friends, being stuck in a small city centre flat, missing hugs and cancelling travel plans with no prospects of a future away from all this… to the feeling of total elation at the success of a virtual catch up, a night spent chilling on my balcony, the sight of a field on my once daily bike ride and a hint of hope that life would resume in the not too distant future. The apparent devastation of the charity sector that again had been hit so horribly hard so quickly… and then personal delight at seeing people enter into virtual events and continue to raise funds to enable services to continue. (And then of course there were the really nutty days where my tea bag would split resulting in inconsolable tears, followed by a less than funny joke shared with a friend sparking hysterical laughter). It’s safe to say I owe a LOT to exercise, a sense of humour, food (and yes, the occasional beer or wine to get me through!).

Fast forward a couple of weeks to where we are now and the emotions are different, the scenarios more ‘normal’ but the rollercoaster remains the same! I’ve been lucky enough to have some brilliant moments sparked by catching up with fundraisers regaling the tales of the incredible things they have achieved whilst furloughed, or in trying to innovate processes to keep their charities afloat. And then the inevitable downer as I hear of another insanely talented person who has just been made redundant, or speak with another charity leader who has spent the day delivering the most devastating news of restructures and job loss. 

I’ve been incredibly lucky to be working recently with the fabulous Family Fund consulting for them and supporting with virtual interviews. Not only has this afforded some hilarious moments getting our heads around the reality of virtual interviewing (blog to follow on this!), but I have to be honest in that this work has provided, for me, the largest highs since the start of lockdown. Despite the initial concerns around the challenge of making appropriate hires without the face to face interaction, we have been absolutely flying! And from an entirely selfish position, being able to call candidates and deliver the good news of a job offer in the darkest of times has been simply wonderful! 



It’s fair to say, whilst managing to refrain from drinking gin for breakfast, there have been some significantly low moments… and this is likely to continue to be the case for some time. If there is one thing I have learnt from this bizarre and unique period of time, it’s that my emotions have a tendency to fluctuate like never before, but whether I’m crying over a split tea bag or prancing round the bedroom, I’m still here, I’ve made it through, and I know I’ll be able to tackle whatever twists and turns the coronacoaster has in store for us all.




Please note: I am incredibly conscious as I write this, that there are many people who have had a lot worse to contend with as a result of Covid. I wanted to share my experiences to give some comfort to those who are struggling as life resumes to 'normal,' no matter how small or big their burden. I do, however, want to take the opportunity to reference those who have lost loved ones or are unwell themselves. If there is one thing I have learned over the last few months it's that people can be wonderfully supportive at times like these, and it's always best to share a burden.



Stress Awareness Month

19 Apr, 2021
As April is stress awareness month we wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what we do at Charity Horizons to help eradicate unnecessary stress, and manage inevitable stress… *Exercise* We have made a commitment to each other that every day we schedule exercise as if it were a meeting DURING the working day. So we either walk, run, cycle, work-out, do yoga / pilates every single day!

My Journey to the other side

By Leanne Roberts • 20 Nov, 2020
My journey to the other side finished a couple of weeks ago. By this, I mean working in house for a charity. The charity I had the pleasure to work for was Family Fund and I am so grateful for the experience. The good thing is, it isn’t goodbye, as both myself and Charlie will be continuing to work with the charity in a consultancy capacity. I just though I would take a few minutes to share my experience. I initially began with the charity in November last year on a 3 months contract and was delighted to stay for has (unbelievably) now been 11 months! As part of my own personal development I knew I always wanted the opportunity to work for a charity, having spent many years (17 in fact) working with numerous charities supporting with recruitment, but never directly on the other side. I couldn’t be more grateful that the organisation I got to do this with, was Family Fund. I can honestly say I have enjoyed every second. In my contract I felt I was able to make a huge impact but also learnt so much along the way. The experience was invaluable, and I will certainly look back on my time there with extremely fond memories. I am not going to lie in that it has certainly been a crazy, busy few months with not just considerable volumes of recruitment, but a few curve balls thrown in the mix too – one of which came in the shape of a global pandemic! This huge curve ball meant we had to totally change the way we recruited, but more importantly it had a significant impact on the charity as a whole and the families we supported. I was both proud and amazed, in equal measures, with how as an organisation we all adapted to the ‘new norm’. At first recruitment was put on hold, and I had the opportunity to work on some really interesting projects including the buddy project and wellbeing guidance. The recruitment freeze didn’t last for long, and after a couple of weeks we were ready to go again. As a team, we tackled the immeasurable challenge of changing the whole recruitment and onboarding process to make it entirely virtual and online. I think, on my last count, I have carried out over 100 virtual interviews in the last few months. I have to say I have also been super impressed with how all the line managers adapted to this, naturally there were some nerves around this new way of working but everyone took this in their stride and as a result we have been successful in recruiting countless amazing key staff members via our new virtual methods. Adapting quickly to this virtual world certainly hasn’t been without its personal challenges! For me, this has involved my lively and rather entertaining 5 year old making rather dramatic entrances to team meetings and having to conduct interviews by candlelight during impromptu power cuts! I'm sure the local postman is placing bets with his friends on how often he can interrupt proceedings by appearing at precisely the wrong moment! 

Why us? Why this? Why now?

19 Jun, 2020
Why us? It's rare in life you meet a colleague in the workplace and recognise that the working relationship you’ve formed could be one which would go beyond the realms of chatting over the coffee machine and having too many wines together at the Christmas do. Saying this, we are certainly not suggesting our eyes met across the photocopier and we knew we were destined to one day go into business together. In fact, being two determined driven females at varying levels in a competitive environment – what could possibly go wrong?! Although we soon recognised our similarities, we were certainly aware of our differences. Safe to say one’s idea of a day well spent would be some retail therapy and a makeover, while the other’s would be cycling miles through the countryside. So, regardless of our differences and conscious of our similarities, the relationship was formed. We’d like to say that our relationship was really established as a result of our joint professionalism and expertise, but in reality our common ground was discovered in the sharing of disastrous anecdotes of meetings hosting in odd shoes and handbags left on trains. But, nevertheless, the relationship was formed and has certainly been challenged in these last weeks and months – turns out setting up a business isn’t perhaps such plain sailing as we first would have anticipated.
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