We've moved

It's official - we've completely moved to our new website - www.workswonders.co.nz so we won't be posting any new blogs up to this site. 

You can check out our new blogs at http://www.workswonders.co.nz/blog/ and you can click on the grey 'follow' button on the bottom right of the new site to follow our blogs.  Our latest blog by Jane has been posted up and is called 'Turn off the TV and build a community.'

If you are having any problems with our new website contact us on hello@workswonders.co.nz

Enjoy our new website!

The big reveal - our new website

By Angela Bensemann

It’s like opening a present at Christmas, polishing your brand new car or stroking that expensive designer dress you snuck into the back of your wardrobe.  Exciting.  That’s the word and that’s what launching the new WorksWonders website is like for us.

It’s been a fairly long time coming.  We spent last year consolidating what WorksWonders was all about.  Once we had that firmly cemented we needed a website that reflected this and allowed us to showcase what we are doing and promote our products and services.

We want to inspire women to achieve a better work/life balance and to attain their dreams.  We also want this business to really rock and to do that people need to know about it. 

Our new website - changes are a-foot

We’re graduating to a new website

Our new website www.workswonders.co.nz (same old address!) will be up and running soon.  Our old site will be switched off in the next few days.

What does this mean?

If you have 'bookmarked' or added one of our web pages to your 'favourites' you will need to do so again on the new website.

It also means that if you subscribe to, or follow our blog you will need to re-subscribe on the new site. We’ll be working through this process over the next few days.

We hope you enjoy our great new website – we’ve really enjoyed working on it.

We’ll be telling you more about our new site over the next week. 

If you’ve got any questions in the meantime contact us at hello@workswonders.co.nz

 

It might be bizzario but it works!

By Angela Bensemann

The thing about style is you’ve either got it or you haven’t.  I’m the first to put my hand up and confess that I haven’t – but – I do know someone who does. 

We first introduced you to Rebecca Hardie last year as a closet crochet queen and craft party organiser.  What I didn’t realise back then was that her sense of style extended to both her house and garden too.

Rebecca and fiancé Craig have transformed their ordinary three bedroom weatherboard house into an extraordinary oasis of eclectic-ness in their suburban street.

Rebecca and Craig in their 'Bizzario' garden.

Craig calls it bizzario. It’s a style that is uniquely their own and is based on what they can repurpose and breathe new life into.

Mum by day - event medic by night! (part 3)

Lucie in her Wellington Free Ambulance uniform.

By Lucie Reece, the final instalment in this three-part blog.

Sometimes what to do just stares you in the eye and dares you to try. I was stood at the coffee shop in the hospital (one of the perks of my volunteer job of driving cancer patients is I get to have a coffee treat while I wait) and a couple of ambulance officers walked past. I thought to myself, I would love to do that.

The next day as I walked the dog, an ambulance passed me and I thought. I would love to do that. And then it hit me, a eureka moment. I want to be an ambulance officer.

Now I am determined (or stubborn as my husband would say), I want to be an ambulance officer but can I in reality deal with the responsibility, the blood, the people? So, I am "trying before I buy" in a way.

As a volunteer event medic, I will experience everything that an ambulance officer will. The advantage is I can see if it’s for me without having to commit to years of study before I know. A sensible choice I feel, also my family at the moment is my priority.

What I do has to fit in with them. I researched St. John's or Wellington Free Ambulance (WFA) event medics (WFA provide a service at events- run by us volunteers. The money charged helps to keep the front line service free to everyone in the greater wellington region), St Johns wanted more of a time commitment that would not work with my family, so I decided on WFA.

WFA recruit twice a year and you go through an interview process if you are selected. For a stay at home mum, writing the CV was a small challenge:
 •Current work experience: zero
 •Reference from current employer: eh no.
 •How do I handle work stress: hmm, no work!

So I played to my strengths. Yes, I am a stay at home mum. But I am good at time management, I can handle a stressful situation (three children gives me lots of practice!).

I am good at problem solving (I can get three children to share one toy without fighting!)

I can think outside the box.

I have handled small medical emergencies (thank you children!) and I work well under pressure.

After the interview, we had a four day training course. Learning lots of skills and it was really nice to be learning something new and exciting.

I have to remember some interesting word combinations that I now know the meaning of!

DRSABCD,PQRST,GCS,SAMPLE,LOC,AVPU,BGT

I have to do two shifts a month and at least 10 hours. There are so many activities to choose from, speedway, soccer, cricket, horse shows, flying shows, safer city on the weekend in Wellington. All will give me a taste of what life would be like if this was my career.

This is the first step on the ladder, I can do a one-year online course later this year and then that will give me a jump into the second year of a degree course to become a paramedic.

The next few years are going to be challenging, finding what fits our family is going to be my main priority and my time management skills will play a big part. What is going to be important for me is support from my husband. I want to make this journey as stress free as I can for the family but I also need to realise this is a long journey. There are going to be lots of learning hurdles that I have to jump. 

It's an exciting career path, so far the shifts I have done have been very exciting. My first shift was speedway and we had no incidents. The race was fun to watch, as we were leaving speedway we heard of a priority one call nearby (this means a serious illness and ambulances have to respond very quickly to help save their life) and because we had a paramedic on board we got to respond. What was initially classed as an overdose, actually turned out to be a domestic incident and no ambulance was required. This was just a tiny taste of what ambulance crews face and I loved it!

Mum by day - event medic by night! (Part 2)

Lucie (left) and friends on a charity "Zombie Run".

By Lucie Reece, part two of a three-part blog.

The children and being a good wife/ mother has been my main priority for a long time, but a few years ago, with the children being slightly less dependent on me, I started doing challenges and raising money for charity. 

I did it to support a friend in the UK who was battling cancer. I persuaded some friends to join me on crazy adventures including triathlons, head shaving, morning teas, a half marathon and a zombie run. We did it, supporting things that were important to us.

But there's only so much money you can ask people for. So, with my youngest at kindy five mornings and the other two at school, I started volunteering for the Cancer Society as a driver. I drive patients to their radiation appointments at Wellington Hospital and then bring them home. What is a simple thing for me means so much to the people I drive.

One lady still blows me away today, for confidentiality purposes I'm going to call her Mary. But I need to tell you about her.

Mary is 68 years old and has skin cancer.

I pick Mary up at 9.15am her appointment is at 10am at wellington hospital and is 20 minutes of radiation. She has to come five days a week for the next six weeks for radiation and on Saturdays she has a day of chemotherapy. That's quite a lot to cope with. But on top of this, Mary is holding down a full time job.

She works 3pm-5am at a factory, five nights a week. She loves her job, it's the one thing she says that makes her keep going. She gets to bed at 6am and then we turn up at 9am to pick her up. She never complains, she just keeps going and she's thankful to me for driving her! It's amazing the strength she has.

Volunteering is unpaid but for me the rewards are huge. Just making people's lives a little bit easier makes you very humble. 

This has also got me onto my new career path. Part three of Lucie’s blog will run tomorrow.

Mum by day - event medic by night! (Part 1)



Lucie's youngest who's nearly five.

By Lucie Reece, part one of a three-part blog.

It's Evening.

The children are asleep and I'm off into Wellington tonight, leaving Daddy in charge. I've got my boots and my outfit sorted, I'm just hoping that there are not too many drunks out tonight. I take just the essentials with me, gloves, glasses, phone, radio, resuss bag. No, that's not some designer bag (although the price might be quite similar!) it's a resuscitation kit.

It has the basic essentials that I can use, to help keep someone alive.

My name is Lucie and I am a volunteer event medic for Wellington Free Ambulance.

How I got here? Well apart from the obvious (ambulance! - insert childish giggle) I'm still surprised myself.

Twelve years ago I thought I had my life planned out. I was a trained nursery nurse in the UK, I loved children and could see no other career path that I wanted to take. I thought by the time I was 30 I would own my own childcare centre and be the perfect boss.

So, imagine my surprise, that with my 30th birthday descending on me fast, I am married, have three children, I live in New Zealand and I have no plan to work with children! This was not the plan.

With my youngest turning five this year, I am facing the big scary world of work once again. But now I have a dilemma, I'm trained to work with children but I don't have the patience to work with them and then come home to my own children! It's not fair on them. Also it has to be a job that fits in with the children, I want to be able to pick them up from school and go to the after school activities.

Working from home would be awesome, if I had a skill that you could be your own boss. I don't.So, I need a job that has short hours, pays well, school holidays off and doesn't involve children. Dream on!

I'm facing the reality that many parents face, I am going to have to learn new skills and face the working world once again. This puts me in the new dilemma of having to think about what I would like to be when I grow up. I never thought I would have to start from scratch again. I could waitress, but I'm terrible at making a good kiwi flat white. I could be a police officer but it’s slightly too dangerous for me.

So what shall I do when my youngest starts school... Catch up with the second part of Lucie’s blog tomorrow.

Snakes and Ladders over coffee: celebrating 10 years of "coffee group"

By Jane Comben

The pool is full of splashing kids while the adults stand about chatting. Quite a contrast to a nervous circle of 12 random couples a decade earlier.

It's been 10 eventful years since our first ante-natal class and the "coffee group" decided to celebrate by hiring out the local pool to accommodate all the resulting families. Our first born have all reached double figures and many have a few siblings as well. While a couple of families have moved away and a couple more have joined the fold, the "coffee group" is still going strong. As I look back over those years it seems rather like Snakes and Ladders. We've all moved up the board but at different speeds and by different paths.

The tick that turned a life upside down

Ruby and best mate Maggie.

By Angela Bensemann

When I first met Ruby she was about four-years-old, throwing the rugby ball around, taking part in her big brother’s training – Dad was the rugby coach.  Full of life, Ruby was up there with the best of them.  A couple of years later Ruby was joined by Maggie the chocolate Labrador pup and the two became inseparable.

But then life took an unexpected turn.

The family had a trip to Australia – nothing unusual in that, most New Zealand families head across the ditch at one time or another.  Ruby was seven at the time and the family did all the usual tourist things, taking in the sights and getting up close and personal with the wildlife.

Little did they know it at the time but a close encounter with a kangaroo was to change Ruby’s life for ever.

Maybe I can do it?

A spare room before Less Mess attention!

...and after.

By Steph Knight, orgnaiser extraodinaire and founder of Less Mess

Around two years ago I was a full time stay-at-home Mum with a husband, a four-and-a-half year old son, and a two-and-a-half year old daughter who never slept through the night!  My life was consumed by both my daughter and I being constantly tired and grumpy. 

Life was hard work, especially with no family in Wellington (although we were very grateful for their remote support and visits!).  I felt like having goals, doing something that I loved and being excited about life was at the end of a very very very long tunnel!

Get a skill and get a life with Volunteer Porirua

Laura Coates gets some real life experience with
Habitat for Humanity.  Photo: Andrew Finau.

By Lynne Harding, Manager of Volunteer Porirua

Hi I am Lynne Harding and I manage Volunteer Porirua. We have a range of exciting voluntary roles listed from over 80 local not-for-profit organisations. There is something listed for almost anyone including administration, childcare, elderly support, education, art, culture, environmental care and more. Our roles are available to both individual volunteers and for employer-based community volunteering projects.

Laura Coates: Photo Andrew Finau.

We have a team of highly skilled Volunteer Interviewers who enjoy the challenge of meeting people from all walks of life who come through our doors to volunteer. One such person is recent graduate Laura Coates – she contacted us when she found it difficult to get a job as an architect.

Laura discovered work experience in the industry was sparse so she  wanted to find a volunteering role in her field, so that she could gain work experience and confidence.

Reasons to be cheerful.

By Jane Comben

Count your blessings, gratitude or being thankful: call it what you like – being grateful can make us happier.

Some events in life change you

By Justine Brooker

Some events in life change you and your perspective on things, whether it be meeting someone totally amazing, the death of a loved one, a traumatic event or even going to a powerful seminar.  You really never know what lies around the corner and what you're going to learn from it.

Our lives were seemingly perfect. Three lovely boys, wonderful husband, cat and dog, wrapped us up nicely. I guess you could have called us a typical family and then life threw us a curveball.

In June 2009 we discovered I was pregnant with our 4th child. This was most definitely not what we had planned but after some initial shock we were excited to be adding to our family. Our other children were born prematurely, so we had expected a bit of an early delivery but nothing could have prepared us for what lay ahead. It wasn't an easy pregnancy and at 13 weeks, I was advised to go on bed rest. I really do mean bed rest, not just a little bit of rest and with three young boys to look after how on earth do you do that?

Personality type – what personality?

 By Angela Bensemann

Most of us think we’re pretty nice people really and get on well with everyone. But then again we can all recall times in the past where we’ve had really bad run-ins with people.

In one of my early workplaces I worked with a woman called Pam (not actually her real name).  At the time I was a young fresh-faced 20 something forging my way in my first communications role working in health.

Pam would have been in her 50s.  I can’t remember the details of what we fell out over.  It could have been when I crashed her car at the very start of a work road trip, or maybe it was that we butted heads over every single idea either of us put forward.

Whatever the reason I vividly remember my manager’s solution to repair the relationship.  He sent us away on a course together and we were sharing a room as well!

I really didn’t think it was going to go at well at all. Call it gut instinct but when I offered Pam a stick of chewing gum and she said ‘oh that sounds like fun’ (fun - how can chewing gum be fun?) I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

Mucking in – the volunteer way

By Angela Bensemann

Many organisations are finding it harder and harder to get volunteers.  Sports teams often struggle to find coaches and schools find it more and more difficult to interest parents in helping out with fundraising and fairs.

Those of you who are passionate about giving back may find a way to volunteer regardless of your circumstances but let’s face it – if you are working full time it is difficult to find the time to fit in yet another commitment.  It can also be hard to find the thing that really appeals to you.

You also need to be realistic, sometimes volunteering won't be fun. Part of the challenge is to find a role that suits your personality. Jane from WorksWonders once did a stint as a Kea Scout leader and no, she's not a born leader of small, noisy boys.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of persevering to find the right thing. 

Another year over: word of the year

 

By Jane Comben

"Another year over, and a new one just begun"

It's New Year's eve and before you dash out to pick up some last minute fancy dress outfit or sparkly number of the party later, we want to wish you a very exciting and wonderful 2013.

Word of the year
If you're tired of trotting out the same old resolutions to get fit or lose weight you may be interested in another, simpler idea. I stumbled across it a few years ago and it's a word of the year. 

The general idea is to take a bit of time out to think what's important to you and what areas of your life you'd like to focus on. Then jot down a few words that feel relevant and resonate with you. From that short list, choose just one word to help guide you through your year.

For example; you're feeling overwhelmed and surrounded with clutter and you'd like to get organised. You might choose a word like 'clarity' or 'release'. If your finances are precarious perhaps ‘wealth’ or ‘adundance’ might help your focus. Want to get fit or lose weight? Then ‘health’ or ‘adventure’ might fit the bill. This blog has more information and some more word ideas.

What’s my word?
My word for 2012 was COURAGE and that’s certainly come into play this year. All the new things we’ve tried with WorksWonders have taken a bit of courage. Like running workshops, delivering presentations and getting to grips with financial plans and technology. That’s not to say it hasn’t been a lot of fun too. The payoff has been meeting some wonderful people and learning some new tricks.

And my word for 2013? I haven’t quite decided yet but I’m toying with words like ‘joy’, ‘fun’ and ‘adventure’.

So forget boring resolutions… what’s your word of the year going to be?

And on the twelfth day of Christmas

By Angela Bensemann and Jane Comben

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…’

And here it is - tomorrow is Christmas in all its shiny wrapping paper, tinselled decorations, reindeers, elves and Santa hats. For some of us Christmas is a chance to celebrate the birth of Christ, catch up with family and friends or finally get that great present we’ve been waiting for. 

Perhaps you don’t celebrate Christmas at all but embrace the few days off work, the sales in the shops and the excuse to eat and drink as much as you like for a few days without criticism.

Whatever you are doing these holidays, whether It’s mid-winter or summer, make sure it’s a safe one and keep your eye on what really matters.

 

Here’s our top 12 loves of Christmas:

• Getting together with family and friends
• Christmas carols
• Tinsel and wrapping paper
• Twinkly lights
• Chocolates and mince pies
• Thoughtful presents
• Pohutakawa trees in bloom
• The lyrics to ‘Grandma got run over by a reindeer’
• BBQing (often as not in the rain)
• The favourite uncle falling asleep after a few beers
• Time off work
• And last but not least a good excuse to eat whatever you like

Merry Christmas from Angela and Jane at WorksWonders.

WorksWonders – the first year 2012

By Angela Bensemann

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun 

 (John Lennon)

This time last year Jane and I were at a cross roads.  Should we take the plunge and launch WorksWonders or should we flag it and spend our time and energy on our existing businesses?

We didn’t even know what WorksWonders was back then.  We knew we wanted to help women on their endeavours towards a better work/life balance as others had helped us on ours. But we didn’t know how we would achieve this.

We did have an overriding motivator though.  That was that we did not want to get to this Christmas and say – “oh I wish we’d given it a go”.  We wanted to be able to say – “we gave it a go and this is what we learnt/got out of it”.

Letters to Santa

By Julia Anderson, marketing and communications consultant - oh, and letter writer

Check out any website about career development, family life or work-life balance and you’ll find many references to goal-setting. For me, goal-setting was always like scripting an annual letter to Santa: Write your list, post it up the chimney and wait to see what turns up.

Boy, did I get my comeuppance the other day, though!

While sorting out the files on my computer, I came across a document entitled ‘Visioning’. I double-clicked to open it, and...  BOOM! There was my list of four very specific, detailed and measurable goals. And not your wimpy ones either. They were Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals: My five-year plan, in fact, due to expire within four months.

Have I achieved them? Mostly, yes. Three out of four are progressing rather well.  And I’ve done it not by closing my eyes, crossing my fingers and singing ‘Jingle Bells’; but by taking small, practical and manageable steps on a consistent basis.

·        I now own my own home (not the swish, architect-designed townhouse that I envisioned, but a modern low maintenance place with a glimpse of the harbour and lovely neighbours)

·        I’ve achieved the work-life balance that I craved. My goal was to work nine months a year and take three months off. I haven’t quite got the three months running consecutively yet, but that’s the next step.

·        I’ve found love again. I’m not saying it’s all a walk in the park: But I had my heart rate checked recently at the gym and when the fitness consultant asked me how my partner was doing, my pulse rate increased. That’s not too shabby, is it?

Live long and prosper

By Angela Bensemann

In all my planning and goal setting I never stopped to consider the most impressive milestone of all – turning 100.  That is until I attended my first ever 100^th birthday in November.

Now I’m not sure it ever entered my mind before that one could reach that magical age. My husband’s Grandfather is the only person I know to have achieved this goal and it got me wondering about what changes he’s seen during his time.

The year was 1912 and a lot was happening. The Titanic sank with 1500 lives lost.  The formica kitchen worktop was invented as too was the electric blanket, the zipper and traffic lights.

Top of the pops was ‘When Irish eyes are smiling’ and ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’. The kewpie doll was first produced along with ‘Life Saver’ lollies (sweets) and heated hair straighteners.

Scott and his party made it to the South Pole (but not back again), the Republic of China was founded and the first neon advertising light appeared in Paris.