Rare Pinterest Success - fuzzy felt dollshouse!

Having not really got Pinterest to start with, I've started finding it really inspiring in terms of getting me crafting. I'm really enjoying the process of seeing something online and working out how to make it.

So, a few weeks ago, I saw this beautiful set of fuzzy felt dress up dolls:

http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-gift-day-day-nineteen-felt-paper.html

This led me to the originator of the idea:

http://charlaanne.typepad.com/charlaanne/2012/05/made-with-love.html

She had also made a felt dollshouse to make it into a takealong toy.

I'm not going to go through my method step by step, as Charla Anne sells the pattern for this toy on Etsy, and I don't want to undermine her earning opportunity. However, I decided to have a crack at working it out for myself. I don't think the end result is quite as sophisticated as the original, but I'm pretty pleased with it, given that I drew the patterns freehand and figured out the method myself!

Rachel is desperate to get her hands on this but we have just wrapped it up for her friend's birthday today, so I am going to have to make another. Oh well!

This is what it looks like:

Cute, don't you think? I may love it a bit too much!

Slightly makes up for my previous stuffed elephant Pinterest fail which has ears sewn just above its tail. Oops!

Review: Lake District Wildlife Park

We've just come home from a sunny March week in the Lake District. Renting a cottage in Keswick with friends, we've had as relaxing a time as can be had in a house with 3 small children. One of the highlights of the week was our visit to the Lake District Wildlife Park.

Located about 10 minutes drive outside Keswick, the park has a beautiful setting - as you might expect from the Lake District, every direction gives a view of hills and mountains. On a sunny day, it's pretty spectacular:

We went with four adults and 3 children under 3, and found the park to be well laid out, and easy to get round with a pushchair and two small sets of legs. There is a wide range of animals, which adults and children alike enjoyed looking at: everything from tapirs to lemurs to otters to birds of prey to meerkats...reptiles, owls, a cockatoo who said hello, many varieties of monkeys, a zebra and more. They were well kept, in sizeable enclosures and all seemed healthy and happy (in distinct contrast to the animals we saw in an Italian zoo a few years ago). We got a bit snap happy, and here are some of our favourite pics and animals:

2 week old piglets

 

Golden eagle

There are many more - I was really struck by the variety of the animals and species there. We were there on a quiet weekday in early March, and were impressed that there was a half-hourly programme of activities, including hug-a-bunny (taken very seriously by my 2 year old):

We also saw the feeding of the meerkats - I won't share the photos of this one, but we were somewhat surprised to discover that meerkats weren't vegetarian, and in fact ripped into a bucket of (already dead) chicks with some gusto! I was glad that our kids weren't quite old enough to understand what was going on - I'd imagine parents of older children would have a bit of explaining to do!

The falconry display was impressive too - we missed the owls display, but enjoyed seeing various birds including Rupert the vulture flown. We took a lot of photos of empty space (they moved really quickly!) but managed to capture a couple:

I was particularly impressed by the knowledgeable way all of the staff talked about their animals and the affection they seemed to have for them.

In the event of rain there is a small indoor soft play area, where my daughter unfortunately found her favourite animal of the park:

However, I could imagine this being hideously heaving with children on a cold weekend day so it probably wouldn't keep you entertained for long.

Overall, it's a really nice place. We spent most of the day there, including a picnic lunch outside, and I'd thoroughly recommend it for attention to detail (for example, a safari jeep to play in whilst watching the zebra), interesting activities, and a huge variety of animals to look at. It was pretty reasonably priced for us (£8.95 per adult) as we didn't yet have to pay for our children - that kicks in from the 3rd birthday, at which point it's also £6.95 per child or £30 for a family of four. I still think it would be worth the money, especially if it is a nice day, and if you make the effort to go to all of the displays. 

One for the to-do list if you find yourself near Keswick with a spare sunny day on your hands!

Note: this is not a sponsored post, we paid for our own entry and my review is spontaneous as we had a great day there (and I wanted to show off our photos!!).

How parenting a toddler prepares you for working in HR - or vice versa!

I've been musing recently on how much synergy there is between the skills required to operate effectively in HR, and those required to parent a toddler so, eventually, I had to write about it. I'm not suggesting that working in HR makes you a better parent, or that being a parent makes you a more effective HR professional, as such, but there is a definite crossover. For example:

Knowing the answer to everything: my toddler has an endearing faith that I know the answer to everything. Generally, I can come up with something. At work, it sometimes feel like this too. Sometimes, I have to fight the urge to explain how Google works instead of answering a question...(note: this does not work with toddlers).

Negotiation: once you've mastered negotiating a toddler out of bed, into clothes, through breakfast, into a coat, into the car, and into nursery, any negotiations that come your way during the working day (whether related to agencies, salaries, complex exit scenarios) are a piece of cake. Nothing is harder than that first hour of negotiations each day.

Coping with ambiguity: toddlers are not consistent. Learning to live with toddler-ambiguity (happily eating pasta, happily eating pasta, halfway through the plate, I HATE PASTA) is a fine preparation for flexing your approach to fit the strategy of the organisation, supporting business needs, and changing your approach halfway through a disciplinary investigation meeting when something entirely unexpected comes up.

Recognition: you can't expect a lot of thanks from a toddler. Similarly, HR is one of those functions that tends only to get noticed when things go wrong (or when you deliver spectacularly on a project, obviously). Good preparation for getting your motivation from other sources than external recognition!

And finally - the struggle for definition. Theories and opinions abound on the nature of parenting, how to do it, co-sleeping, babywearing, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, working, not working, leading to a potentially constant sense of having to defend your own approach and (at times!) very existence. HR seems to have a similar struggle for identity and worth. My approach on parenting has been to ignore the debates and go with my gut instinct. My approach in HR has been much the same...rather than worrying about whether I have a "seat at the table", I'd recommend getting on with doing a good job, taking the best-fit approach, demonstrating confidence and letting results lead to influence.

Add to these key skills the eagerness to do a full week's work in fewer hours to demonstrate that nothing has changed (and overlook a slight tendency to be way more forgetful due to lack of sleep), and why would you not want to employ a toddler's parent in HR?!

HR Dilemmas from Children's TV: The Fat Controller's management style

It's been a bit too long since my last post. I'm definitely not a prolific blogger - I prefer long gaps to blogging when not inspired just to keep the blog active! Tonight, whilst reading "Emily" from the Thomas and Friends series, for the third time during that meal, inspiration finally struck! I'm slightly cheating on my theme as this is linked to a book, but the same behaviours are displayed in the TV version.

For those unfamiliar with Thomas the Tank Engine (is that anyone?), Thomas and his friends all work on the railway on the Island of Sodor. Whilst they apparently have drivers, the only human who regularly appears is the Fat Controller, and it is his management style I want to examine today.

I would describe the Fat Controller as a "JFDI" manager - he expects instant obedience when he gives an order, and regards any attempt to reason with him as argument and therefore insubordination.

Behaviours that he will often exhibit are:
- Issuing orders without context or explanation
- Shouting at his engines if they attempt to ask questions or offer an alternate opinion
- Punish the engines for perceived misbehaviour without fully investigating the situation
- Being particularly angry when something happens that inconveniences him personally
- Expecting the engines to understand and deliver what he wants with limited explanation or training

Whilst this can lead to short term results, and the immediate task will get done, there are some mid- to long-term implications of this sort of management style:
- It teaches the engines to obey because they have to, not because they want to - thus, if they can get away with not obeying, they are likely to take the opportunity to do so. For true engagement, and enhanced productivity through discretionary effort, it would be better to use a more consultative style which leads to the engines performing well because they want to.
- New, Gen-Y, engines such as Emily expect to gain fulfilment, recognition and progression through work, and to have their opinions listened to. Engines are, in the main, no longer going to work in the expectation that it is ok to be treated like a homogeneous group - they are individuals, and want to be recognised as such. Failing to engage with this is likely to lead to disengagement, higher attrition, and potential damage to the employer brand, which may cause difficulty in recruiting. The JFDI style doesn't tend to fit well with the WIIFM generation.
- The tendency to punish without investigation could lead to unfair disciplinary action and, in an extreme, dismissals, which creates an obvious legal risk. More generally, though, unjust treatment has the potential to significantly damage the employment relationship - with an unfair manager, people may leave (regardless of how good the company is), or if they stay, unjust treatment tends to lead to poor morale, ongoing disgruntlement, and lower productivity.

In short, the Fat Controller's management style is at odds with the majority of current accepted theory on managing a productive, engaged workforce, and he would be advised to adjust his style. Whilst Thomas and Friends appear to be committed, and geographically static (i.e. low flight risks), this cannot be relied upon to continue; they may leave or (possibly worse) they may remain, in a disgruntled, disengaged state, where they work to rule and only perform when forced to!

Crafty Creatives Christmas box

A few months ago, I came across Crafty Creatives (www.craftycreatives.com), a subscription service where for a reasonably small sum each month, a box of surprise crafty goodies are dispatched to your door. I was so tempted to subscribe but knew that realistically, I don't have time for a regular supply of craft items and I would just be subscribing in order to build up a stock of untouched boxes.

But oh, how I wanted to join in.

In September, they announced a one off Christmas box with no requirement for a longer term subscription and I decided I could treat myself to this. The waiting began and finally, towards the end of November, the box arrived.

I'd convinced a friend to get one too, so we have been sharing regular updates on our progress through the box.

First impressions: as many others have said, it was a smaller box than expected, but it has a lot in it! I enjoyed picking through the different kits and other bits, and spent a fair bit of time playing with it before starting to make anything.

So far, I have:

Made a beaded bauble - this involved threading tiny beads with a needle, to produce a sort of net which sits and shimmers on top of a bauble. I did this first as I've never done anything like it and it looked the hardest. In fact, whilst being a bit fiddly, it wasn't that hard. I really enjoyed the technique; I think life is probably too short to craft bauble covers but I can see myself using a similar technique in other contexts. This is what I made - I love it:

Made 5 tiny pots of lip scrub, using coconut oil, sugar, honey, and the provided pots. I was quite excited about this in concept, but found it a little bit of a let down - it was a nice idea, but my scrub didn't quite work as the melting point of the coconut was too low, meaning that it melts as soon as I touch it with my finger and doesn't bring any sugar to my lips to do the scrubbing! It was also a really quick process meaning that the crafting itself wasn't particularly satisfying. Not my kind of thing really.

Made a mobile using one of the wreath rings, covered in the ribbon, with christmas tree beads and bells:

I was really pleased with this as I thought it was pretty - the beads have a really nice feel and heaviness to them. Sadly my daughter knocked it to the floor causing an irretrievable tangled mess, so I am going to have to remake it, or design something else! The beads, bells and rings were all really nice pieces.

Used the Christmas tree stickers as an advent calendar for a toddler - really quick and simple idea, with my only complaint being that there aren't enough stickers for the whole 24 days...luckily Peppa Pig is stepping into the breach! She is enjoying sticking them on each day and I think it's creating a sense of the countdown to Christmas for her:

I could probably have spent more time on the design but I was doing it on 1st December!

Used half of the felt tree decorations kit to make this bauble:

I liked the concept of a felt tree decorations kit but would have liked more exciting felt colours - mine were brown and green which didn't inspire me particularly, especially in combination with pink embroidery thread! I have a Christmas tree in progress though.

There are also 3 wooden die cut snowflakes which I've threaded up and hung on the tree - not my most imaginative moment.

That's all I've made so far. There are two sheets of really pretty Christmas paper, which I intend to make into cornucopia - little cones with a handle to fill with sweets and hang on the tree. There are also two little gift boxes which I will make when I do my wrapping (already mentally allocated to particular presents), and three card templates - haven't quite decided what to do with those yet. Oh, and I have more Christmas trees, bells, and another wreath ring!

Overall, I have really enjoyed playing with the box and deciding how to use the contents. I would have preferred a paper or fabric based kit in place of the lip scrub one, and a slightly more coordinated felt kit but it has felt like money well spent and I will go back for more when I have more crafting time!

HR Dilemmas from children's TV: Miss Rabbit

For the second in this occasional series, I want to look into the mysterious employment status of Miss Rabbit.

Peppa Pig features large in our house, so I have had plenty of opportunity to study this. For the uninitiated, Miss Rabbit runs the supermarket, the rescue helicopter, the train, the bus, the museum gift shop, the space attraction, the kiosk at Duck World, the ice cream van...the list goes on. For me, this raised a few issues, but I am going to focus on Miss Rabbit's employment status. We'll leave consideration of Miss Rabbit and the Working Time Directive, and the discrimination which is clearly preventing married women from holding down a job for another time!

Miss Rabbit appears to work every hour of the day, running pretty much all of the service industry. How can she be employed in so many places at once? There are a number of options:

1) Everything is owned by a single organisation; Miss Rabbit is employed by the umbrella company and deployed on a just-in-time basis. If this is the case, I'd recommend that the organisation looks at their resource and contingency planning, and considers some succession planning / flight risk analysis. On the one occasion where Miss Rabbit is sick, she has to organise her own cover and send her sister (Mrs Rabbit, just in case you wondered!) in to cover all of her jobs for the day. Everything falls apart. An organisation relying solely on one person for success is heading for trouble at some point.

2) Each business is owned by a different organisation; Miss Rabbit is freelance, operating under her own limited company, and invoicing them for time spent. This explains her ability to leap between roles wherever she is required. However, if this is the case, the businesses are exposing themselves to potential risk in the event of an HMRC audit: Miss Rabbit appears to hold a key role in each organisation and it is difficult to see how she could avoid being viewed as an employee, potentially incurring tax and NI liabilities going back to at least 2003. It is also unlikely to be the most cost-effective resourcing method; Miss Rabbit is likely to command a high day rate as she seems to be the only person available for work, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around to validate her invoices and timesheets.

3) Each business is owned by a different organisation, employing Miss Rabbit on zero hours contracts, so that they can just deploy her as needed. A zero hours contract creates an employment relationship, without requiring the employer to commit to a specific volume or pattern of work. It can be viewed as exploitative, potentially demanding commitment from the worker without offering any security. It would also be difficult to manage, and each organisation would need to be aware that Miss Rabbit was accruing annual leave as she worked, and to allow her to take this. Miss Rabbit may view this arrangement as beneficial to her - she is free to hold a number of jobs, although clashes appear to be likely, and it is lucky that there appears to be a community agreement to all travel to work at the same time on the single bus journey of the morning. I presume that on the day she drives the school bus for the trip to the mountains, everyone is happy to find a different route to work! I would urge the businesses, in this situation, to consider whether zero hours contract are the best way to go; they can seem an easy alternative to workload and resource analysis and planning, but increased loyalty and quality commitment could be achieved by offering fixed work patterns.

4) Miss Rabbit owns all of the businesses, and is operating on a shoestring. As the owner of a collection of small businesses, she may feel that she can't afford to employ others on a temporary or permanent basis. However, her businesses may be suffering; if more fully staffed, it is likely that sales in each area would increase, as they would cater more conveniently for the needs of the community. She could consider starting some sort of childcare business (which doesn't appear to currently exist, except for pre-school for a few hours each day), and create childcare capacity which would potentially free Mummy Pig, Mrs Zebra, Mrs Elephant and so on to seek part time work outside the home, should they wish to do so. There is an untapped pool of potentially skilled and keen workers, who are likely to want to work on a part time basis, thus not incurring the cost of full time employees. This would reduce the vulnerability of the businesses, reduce reliance on her, and leave her with more leisure time to enjoy the profits of her work (although it's unclear what she would spend her time doing as she appears to be the only single, childless adult in the community!).

5) We all know how rabbits breed..."Miss Rabbit" may in fact be multiple rabbits, each with a separate full time job, but no-one has noticed because the Rabbit family look so alike (a cynic may think that Miss Rabbit and Mrs Rabbit were in fact the same drawing). In which case, straightforward employment status, and a community that doesn't realise it is overrun by rabbits.

What do you think? I suspect it is 5!

HR Dilemmas from children's TV: Postman Pat

I think this will be the first in an occasional series on the HR dilemmas presented by characters on children's TV. It was inspired by Postman Pat so we will consider him first.

Having recently watched more episodes of Postman Pat than I care to admit, it struck me that there is a theme. Each day, Pat attempts to deliver one thing, generally messes up / loses it, but eventually manages to get the item there in the nick of time.

This raised, for me, a number of people management questions.

Is Pat deeply incompetent, and getting away with it, or succeeding against all the odds?
How could his productivity be improved so that he can make more than one special delivery per day?
Could resources be better deployed: he has a van, a helicopter, and a jeep (at least) assigned to his sole use?
What happens to all the parcels we see coming through the mail centre if he is only delivering one per day? Is there actually an army of less photogenic (a frightening thought) of mail delivery professionals handling the rest, leaving the tricky ones to Pat?
If Pat's performance is an issue, how should it be managed - is it capability or conduct?

Firstly, we should have a look at the expectations which have been set. Has Pat been asked to focus on the careful delivery of a limited number of special items, or would it be reasonable to expect him to deliver more? Has a precedent been set so that he believes he is achieving what is required?
Secondly, we should investigate the circumstances around the bodged deliveries. What were the commercial and reputational impacts of Pat's inability to deliver a parcel without some form of mishap? Has he actually lost or seriously damaged anything, or are they all near-misses? If all near-misses, what is the potential impact, and is this serious enough in itself to require some sort of disciplinary or performance management action?
Thirdly, why is it happening? Does Pat need more training? Is he aware that it is a criminal offence to open someone else's mail? Does he know how to adequately secure the van so that items don't fall out? Has he been trained on securing parcels within the van so that items don't break? Or is he just too busy trying to control the domestic animal that he carries around with him to concentrate on what he should be doing?

Armed with the answers to these questions, I would recommend an informal conversation to begin with, between Pat and his line manager (invisible - regular one to ones clearly aren't in place). Clear expectations should be set. If no improvement is seen, a formal process should begin. This could either be a disciplinary process (if we believe that Pat has been adequately trained and instructed, and is not following procedure - i.e. conduct), or make use of a performance management process.

Following each step of the procedure, objectives and a review date should be set, and regularly reviewed. If things improve, and Pat achieves the objectives, excellent news: the people of Greendale will benefit from an improved postal service. If he doesn't pick up the pace, improve the quality of the delivery, and gain better control of his cat...well, once the appropriate steps of the procedure had been followed, I would dismiss him.

Yes, that's right.

I would sack Postman Pat. What would you do?