Work Life Week | Stuart's Story

By Steph Dyke, Marketing Manager

Did you know that 94% of employees don't work the traditional hours of 9 to 5 according to a new poll carried out by YouGov?

As part of our focus on National Work Life Week, we’ve got another inspiring story to share, this time from Stuart Lambourne, one of our Client Services Directors. Stuart has worked at Guidant Global since 2017 and has been integral to the transition and running of multiple accounts over the last few years. We chatted with him recently about his experiences with flexible working and here’s what he had to say…

I’ve been with Guidant since Blue Arrow’s managed services moved in 2017 and prior to that I spent 4 years with Blue Arrow. Before that I was a recruitment agency Branch Manager for 6 years. All my working life has been spent in the recruitment industry, so I fully intend to stay put! For me, the future holds as much innovation, thinking outside the box, and challenging the norm as I can possibly get away with!

Since joining Guidant, I’ve been lucky enough to work flexibly and I’ve always understood it’s a two way street. However, last year the need to work flexibly grew drastically and unexpectedly, as I was diagnosed with a tumour in my neck. Almost 6 months later it was finally removed and that was supposed to be the end of that but unfortunately, upon removal, it was confirmed as cancer. The tumour had wrapped itself around my arteries, veins and nerves in my neck so further operations and a few months of daily radiotherapy were required. I worked through as much as I could, some weeks more than others; some days not at all, some days full days. Throughout this time, my working pattern, working week, whereabouts and attendance were never questioned, only embraced.

My team would always travel to visit me at home so we could continue face to face meetings which I really appreciated as they went out of their way to keep me in the loop. Guidant as a whole never made me feel pressured to be anything more able than what I was on any given day. Meetings often became conference calls and, as I was unable to meet anywhere near a normal workload, everyone around me picked up that bit more, so that I could concentrate on getting better. I sometimes made more work of things by thinking I was helping and then in reality I wasn’t, but everyone around me appreciated that and worked hard to let me be involved as much or as little as I could be during the last 12 months.

I would say that, without doubt, working flexibly is one of the most important workplace benefits. There are some roles that allow greater, or lesser, levels of flexibility (and I guess remote / home working falls heavily within that) but I firmly believe it should be strived for across as many roles as it possibly can be. I’ve never wished for the 9-5 and since joining Guidant I’ve not had it.

There’s no doubt my situation has been a little unusual, but if I combine my flexible working life before, during and since – I am a huge advocate and have certainly been more productive. Not just in terms of how many hours have I sat in front of a client or laptop, but sometimes your best work isn’t in the office. Working flexibly, you get chance to think, to be imaginative and to let ideas flow! Cheesy…but equally true.

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