If you’re an avid Work.Life blog reader, you know by now that we love the opportunity to introduce you to the faces of Work.Life! Next up is James, the Bermondsey Membership Manager known for his sarcastic humour and boyish charm. Even on a gloomy day, James will make you chuckle and bring a smile to your face!
The first thing you should know about me, I love traveling. Whilst I’ve never truly bit the bullet and quit my job to backpack for a year I generally spend every possible holiday day out of the country each year. In the past 2 years alone I’ve spent time in Canada, Cambodia, USA, Holland, Portugal, Norway, Iceland, Vietnam, Greece, Italy, Germany, Spain and most recently Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. It’s where all my money goes.
It was quite a big step for me, leaving my previous job and changing industry. For the last 7 years I managed The Miller pub which is just around the corner from Work.Life Bermondsey coincidentally. It was a fun job and I helped transform the pub into a very well known and loved SE1 drinking and partying establishment. But the time came for a new challenge and I feel so lucky to have found Work.Life.
So many things drew me to working here. It’s a small but quickly growing company, it’s got serious morals and passion and all the staff are fantastic. I can really see it becoming a big company over the next few years without losing it’s identity or close-knit community vibe that is so important to us.
I’ve really enjoyed getting to know all the Bermondsey members and learning about so many industries that I knew very little about before. There’s so many interesting people doing such a variety of jobs, it’s great to be able to help make connections too.
Co-working and having flexible working hours is huge now and is clearly the way forward. I’m convinced it creates better results for people. I feel it’s my job to create the environment for people to excel at their jobs and I’m so keen to constantly improve the space, the atmosphere and the services available to our members.
It’s funny, whilst the job is quite different to what I’m used to a lot of the fundamentals are the same. Dealing with a lot of people, keeping a space in good order, multitasking, dealing with a million random problems that can occur at any second. Thankfully I haven’t had to clean up any vomit or call the police yet though. Fingers crossed.
Outside of work I’m one of those annoying all-round creative types who flitters between projects based on my mood. Primarily though I’m a musician and have been writing and recording my debut album since the beginning of 2017. It’s fun, indie/art-rock so hopefully when it’s done I’ll be able to subtly slip it onto the Work.Life playlists.
Other than that, my mood will largely be dictated by the inconsistent results of Arsenal FC so always good to check the previous days game if you want to ask me for something out of the ordinary.
I’m so excited to get stuck into this amazing company and space though, I have a feeling 2018 is going to be a good one. Come and say hi!
