Hi everyone,

I’m back at writing my blog updates! 

First of all, happy new year! I hope you all had a fantastic start of the year and that you’re ready to work on new projects or keep improving old ones.

It’s been a while since the last time I shared my news here and this is the very first blog post of 2021, so I have a lot to tell you now. Let’s get started!

The end of 2020 was quite busy: I dedicated a lot of time interviewing applicants and by January we have welcomed a lot of new members! It’s always sad to see people leave for one reason or another, but I’m also glad I got to meet them and work together on several projects. 

 

Chances are that you will never meet any of your teammates in person, but trust me when I say that you can still get attached to them once you start sharing your time and work. I don’t really agree with people who say that working from home feels lonely. I am actually always in contact with my colleagues as well as external people like potential members or clients. But I guess it’s the nature of my role at Pearl Lemon!

I’ve always liked both to work solo and with other people. Lately, it seemed I barely spent time working alone, so I felt quite unproductive at times as I was dedicating more than half a day just to respond to other people’s requests. Responding to people is part of my job and I love it but it also takes time away from the tasks I need to actively work on. In any case, I know everything depends on the period I am in as things and goals change quite quickly.

 

In December, Deepak decided to have two regular meetings a week that became live training sessions for the whole team. The goal was to teach us more about new strategies of different fields or to address challenges that we struggled with. I think they were pretty useful thanks to the practical approach of the training. Starting with real problems and scenarios, Deepak showed us great ways to streamline processes and improve things whenever situations could have been better dealt.

During the Christmas holidays, we took a break from our usual weekly team meetings, as everyone was working at different times and taking days off. I also took the time to properly rest and make the most of my family. We all deserved holidays!

 

The beginning of January was all about adjusting to the main news I am going to give you now!

This week, I’m officially moving out of HR as I will be focussed on Pearl Lemon Academy only!

I recently found a person that can replace me in the team and only focus on HR. I always thought that HR was quite a commitment and having someone working on that only would have helped. So far, I was always trying to split myself between HR and something else. 

 

I have had an awesome time working in HR and it’s a bit weird to leave it for real. I have learnt a lot in 6 months, way more than expected! In this time frame, I hired 40 new people and managed a lot more during the recruitment process. The team went from around 10 people to +25! 

All in all, it’s been a wonderful experience and even if I will no longer be the main point of contact, I will still support Noemi, our new HR Executive.

 

Pearl Lemon Academy is going through ups and downs. Overall, we’re happy of the baby steps we’re taking but we’re not quite there yet. Giulia has come in help to manage the lead generation campaigns and we’re getting more leads. I don’t want to reveal too much for now as I’m sure there will be way more news in my next update.

 

On another note, I’m currently listening to an audiobook that is opening up a world of possibilities (for Pearl Lemon Academy mostly) and I can’t wait to put them into action! The book is called Dotcom Secrets by Russell Brunson. It’s part of a trilogy (and I’m going to read them all!)

The reading time I am now committed to on a daily basis is part of a longer journey that I have just started. I am finally taking my self-development more seriously and I’m motivated to build a habit around it. I’ve always struggled to fit in the right time and energy to ensure continuous active learning on different topics but now I’m ready to change!

Hope you’re all staying safe, catch up in the next update in two weeks!

Ciao,

Federica