I initially joined Shorts, with the aim of progressing my career with a larger, regional firm. I met with Andy and Malc in interviews and both emphasised the culture at Shorts – this was a huge factor in my decision to join. I felt my personality would fit really well, meaning I could thrive personally, and have the reassurance that the partner group would support me both in my personal life, and my professional career. I was promoted to the position of Owner Manged Business Director in April 2024.
I was pleasantly surprised that the reality of working at Shorts, by far surpassed my already high expectations. The nature of the whole team enabled me to settle immediately, and I hit the ground running. The general culture, and the support I received from the partners on a day-to-day basis, is something I had not experienced before, and I have found it to be very unique. This has had a huge positive impact on my career and enabled me to really push on. As someone who tends to lack self-belief – the partners quickly identified this – and have been instrumental in working with me on it, which has had a really positive impact on both my professional career and my personal life too.
From a purely personal level, for someone who has always “worked that extra hour” – or “I know I’m on holiday but just need to check my emails quickly” – the difference has been night and day since joining Shorts. Again, the whole culture has been very much focused on work-life balance, which is led from the top and sets a great example. I have been forced to teach myself how to ‘switch off’ once the working day ends, to focus on myself, my family, and my hobbies, and to simply recharge. I initially found this difficult, but now fully appreciate the effects this has on me personally. It has also, somewhat surprisingly, impacted my work life too, and increased efficiency, meaning the same level of work is still being completed, but inside the normal working hours.
The core hours policy and hybrid working have both been instrumental in my quality of work-life balance. Shorts understand and advocate that people have personal lives, and this policy is a huge factor in that. For me – playing a sport in England that isn’t a typical British sport, Ice Hockey, means we play/train at incredibly unsociable hours – specifically training at 11 pm on a Sunday night, until the early hours of Monday morning. Being able to work from home on a Monday, and also utilising the later start of the core hours policy (where my diary allows), means I can still get sufficient rest before starting the working week. This has always been a huge issue for me at previous firms, so the impact these policies have had on my personal life is monumental.