The Workplace Mirror: When a Column Becomes More Than a Column

ALMOST TEN YEARS ago, I was given space in a newspaper to write. I could not have known then what that space would eventually become.

I had joined Interactive Media Limited in what was, for me, an unconventional role as Marketing Executive. Marketing had never been my profession, although I had completed extensive certification training in exporting services, and I was determined to add value. Writing was one way I could. I was already a published author, and I remain grateful that the CEO and editor at the time knew this and graciously gave me an opportunity to contribute to the newspaper.

Naturally, my early articles reflected the work I was doing. I wrote about marketing, why businesses should market themselves, and why marketing should not begin only when business is down. Fourteen months later, an opportunity allowed me to return to the field I loved: human resource management. I left Interactive Media Limited, but, graciously, they allowed my column to stay.

I certainly did not imagine that more than nine years later, I would still be writing for these pages.

A lot has changed since then, including the column itself. I wrote about customer service and our need to meet international standards, employment legislation, health and safety, training, employee engagement and disengagement, integrity, organisational behaviour and leadership.

Looking back, the development of the column also tells the story of my own professional development.

As my experiences widened, my observations changed. I became increasingly interested not only in what was happening in organisations, but in what sat beneath what we could immediately see. A resignation could tell a larger story. Silence could communicate something.

A customer service failure could point beyond the person serving the customer to the systems and culture surrounding that person.

Somewhere along the way, a column became more than a column.

It became a place to examine the workplace through what I observed, experienced, studied and questioned. It also became a conversation with readers. Some of my most meaningful feedback came from people who stopped me in the street or approached me somewhere to say they had read an article, enjoyed the column or had been given something to think about.

Writers do not always know where their words land.

Those encounters allowed me to know that mine were landing somewhere.

There were weeks when writing was difficult.

Deadlines arrived when my schedule was already full, and I had to find the time not simply to write something, but to conceptualise something worth asking another person to read.

There were occasions when I contemplated bringing the column to an end. Today, with that decision taken out of my hands by the cessation of the newspaper, I am particularly grateful that I did not.

And so, this final column comes with mixed emotions. I am saddened that this respected and trusted Vincentian brand is ceasing publication. I am deeply grateful to Interactive Media Limited for giving my words a home and continuing to make room for them long after I was no longer an employee. And I am equally grateful to you, the readers, who made writing week after week worthwhile. While this is the final Workplace Mirror article that will appear in these pages, it is not the end of The Workplace Mirror. The work has grown beyond the newspaper column that helped to nurture it.

I will continue sharing my experiences, expertise and observations on The Workplace Mirror website (www.theworkplacemirror. com) and through the other spaces into which the work has grown.

The Workplace Mirror Reflection: To Interactive Media Limited, thank you for giving my words a home.To every reader who met me in these pages, thank you for reading, reflecting and encouraging me to keep writing. This particular chapter ends here, but the observations, the conversations and The Workplace Mirror continue. Karen James is a Strategic Leadership Advisor, author, speaker, and founder of The Workplace Mirror, where she helps leaders and organisations uncover blind spots, expand perspective, and strengthen organisational effectiveness. She is also the founder of The Wise Professional, helping individuals and organisations make wiser workplace decisions.