Battling the back to school blues

By Carol Pender

 

This week officially marks what in France is known as ‘la rentrée’. It is synonymous, not just with the return to school, but with the end of the lazy, hazy days of August during which economic and political life comes to a standstill, the Parisians leave the capital en masse, and you have absolutely no problem finding a seat outside a café or restaurant (unless they’re closed as well of course!). As if to underline the fact that summer is over and reflect the general mood, September 1 was greeted with rain after days of clear skies, and public transport is yet again overflowing with men and women battling their way to the office, all be them a little more tanned than usual.

 

In many ways, la rentrée is a lot like New Year. The holidays are over, which has everyone a little down in the dumps, you’ve probably indulged far too much, and so you look towards the future with a set of new resolutions, which normally includes kick-starting your health and fitness habits.

 

So keeping in that spirit, and to face the rentrée in a positive frame of mind, the French team has been thinking about ways in which we can maybe improve the way we work and interact with clients and journalists. Some of these are things I’m sure many of you do already, but it’s easy to slip into bad habits. In any case, here is what we’ve come up with:

• Clean out your inbox on a regular basis and file all important emails in a logical, intelligent way so that they will be easy to find!
• Don’t drop everything to reply to an email that isn’t urgent i.e. prioritise
• Begin monthly reports at the beginning of the report and fill them in gradually – don’t wait to do everything at the last minute
• Don’t have blind faith in your computer’s spelling and grammar check; it will only lead you astray. In fact, don’t have blind faith in anything!
• Remember to support and praise each other for work well done. Not everyone  remembers to do it, but it’s always nice to hear, particularly from colleagues you  respect
• Find a healthy way to handle stress. Some can do it by nature, others need a little help (not necessarily liquid help, hence the ‘healthy’ part!). Reading, yoga, breathing techniques or knock-the-crap out of you kickboxing – whatever works for you to switch off and leave the office behind without taking your bad day out on the hapless boyfriend, wife or stranger in the street.  It’s only work for goodness sake ;-)

So there you have it. Just a few ideas to ponder on – I’m sure you can think of plenty more ways to make the office a more agreeable, conducive working environment for everyone, so don’t be afraid to share.

But especially, Bonne Rentrée à toutes et à tous!!