I hate forms.

What, if anything, do you miss about working for a company in an actual office?

Pilfering from the stationery cupboard. And, weirdly, voluminous and pointless EMAILS. Like, please send me emails. I miss ‘em.

What’s your WFH soundtrack?

Billy Nomates, with Call in Sick my top track. (“AND WHO GOES IN ON A FRIDAY?!”)

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?

“Do you want to be The Person or the person behind The Person?” (Thank you, Sarah.) My husband also introduced me to the Free Agent Manual, which is invaluable for freelancers – and freethinkers.

Pass on an important piece of wisdom you learnt at work.

That a ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’ is the geometry of a Pringle. (I was writing a press release about an architectural detail of a single-ply roof.)

If you could improve one small thing about current workplace culture, what would it be?

Respect working hours and timezones (including your own), and stop emailing out of hours and at weekends and holidays. And read David Graeber.

Have you ever lied to get a job?

When applying for my last job, my brother decreed my CV too boring and suggested I add “horse riding” as a hobby. Whilst it was true I had somewhat enjoyed riding horses on all of three occasions, this did not prepare me for the outdoorsy, active nature of my soon-to-be Norwegian colleagues, who all grilled me on horses and ‘hands’ and wot-not in a succession of interviews. I confessed to my lie at my first team meeting and never lived it down, with a later actual horse-riding team-building activity causing much mirth. 

Hypnosis and magic – oooooohhhhhh?!

Okay, so I write an obscure hypnosis blog here – alongside my far more accomplished husband. As for magic, I also successfully wrote a thesis to join The Magic Circle on corporate magical experience design, which upset and confused some members of the magic community so much that they initially ‘failed’ my entry. (But no I still won’t tell you how Derren/Blaine/Dynamo/etc does that trick.)

I’d like to take you out to dinner and get you drunk on the company credit card. Do you have any food allergies or special dietary requirements?

That sounds really wonderful! I’m not very skilled with chopsticks, but find sushi frustratingly compelling and exciting.