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Friday Snippet: Seeing the Opportunities

Seeing the Opportunities

Covid-19 has been a challenging time for everyone.

Being in lockdown was a bizarre experience but as usual the team at Fnality jumped into action and offered to share whatever they could to remain in contact and support each other’s health and wellbeing.

Different team members scheduled group fitness sessions, meditation, bake-off’s, book club, and Mandarin classes!

I decided to get involved in all of the things as I like to remain active and love spending time with people. The most challenging thing that I decided to take on was Mandarin lessons. Unfortunately, languages aren’t necessarily my strongest point but I thought I would give it a go.

My colleague Lauren Hume lived in China for 6 years and is passionate about teaching the language that she became fluent in.

Lauren and I are both part of the People and Talent Community of Practice within Fnality, but this additional knowledge sharing outside of work was such a wonderful experience from more than just a learning perspective. Sharing a common passion is a wonderful tool for building strong relationships.

Over the last 18 months Lauren has (very) patiently been teaching me Mandarin and having spoken to each other every week, we have become a constant support for each other throughout all of the ups and downs that lockdown has brought along the way.

We often have a little general catch up prior to starting our Mandarin lessons each week, and through these conversations we discussed CIPD courses and due to this information sharing are now both halfway through our Level 7 certificate, which we have helped and encouraged each other through.

It’s easy to say no to things, as we all live very busy lives but sometimes saying yes to something different can open the door to so many other exciting opportunities.

Being in lockdown did allow a lot of reflection/self-reflection time for many, but for me the key to maintaining one’s wellbeing is by seeing the opportunities in every challenge.


Topics: Insider, Fnality, Views, people, diversity, inclusion, Mental Health, Wellbeing, culture, Fnamily

Francesca Gunn

Written by Francesca Gunn

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