Evaluating working environments

We have a great example that we use internally called “Kipchoge, not Bolt”. So we think it's great that Usain Bolt goes at goodness knows how many miles an hour he goes, but he only runs a hundred meters. Whereas Kipchoge was the man who ran a marathon in under two hours. And he managed to run, I think, four and a half minute miles, 26 of them. That's the pace we want to get to. We're not there yet, but we want to run at a steady pace, but at a fast pace.

If I've got like the plumber coming at home, I shouldn't be afraid to tell my manager, "I'm going to take one hour break because I've got this thing to do." And that's really important for me.

I strongly believe that if you are relaxed, flexible, happy, and chilled, we can be way more productive than just being under dictatorship at work.

When we are at work in Italy, we work. But then after, the social life is really strong. And the things that you can do and the way you enjoy life after work is different than here. That's why it becomes even more important here because the weather is really different, the food is very different. So, we are seeking that part, that side of life, that in UK is a bit more difficult to have, but still we want to have it. And I can find it in the workplace with my colleagues, with my managers and being able to, okay, we are not just colleagues. Let's be more than that, but not like close friends - respecting the boundaries is really important. So understanding what the other person wants and can give it's really important, but still, we can enjoy ourselves and the time that we spend together and we can talk about other things that are not just work all the time.

Going through that whole burnout process made me realise that when you build the culture and you build a work environment, you have to take care of the people as your first priority. As long as people are happy and they feel they are doing what they have to do, then everything else will follow accordingly.

If I was looking for another job at the moment, my top priority would be, "How do they treat their staff? What are the things they think about? What are the messages this company sends around how they value their staff? Is it a check-in at 8:30 and everyone's clocked in and everyone's monitored at every minute? Or is it, these are adults and they can do their own job, as long as they're doing the job that needs to be done, they can manage their own time? Do they explicitly talk about wellbeing? Are they aware of the fact that we've been through a pandemic and people want to know that their employers care about them as much as themselves? Do they have a budget for learning? Do they care about helping people progress within the company, or is it a sort of, you come in and then you have to leave in order to progress?"