Rachael McKelvey

• “Rip-off” degress
• Where do you get your news from?
• We’re still all going to call it Twitter right?
• Do you partake in “phubbing”
• Feedback – love it or hate it?

“Rip-off” degrees
Rishi Sunak has pledged to crack own on “rip-off” degrees that don’t lead to a graduate job by essentially forcing English Universities to limit student numbers to “underperforming courses” which is determined on some very binary metrics of graduate employment rate and the drop out rate of the course. Apparently too many young people are giving false aspirations that learning more will get them and give them the skills to get “decent job” and I really don’t even know where to begin to unpack this.

Why do we want to double down on the rather toxic link that all further and higher education can only be pursued if the payoff is financial and why do we judge underperforming courses based solely on rather arbitrary metrics please?

At best this awful hot take should lead to some self-reflection that maybe we do need to look at education, from the bottom to the top and make it more suitable for the world as it stands and more importantly the skills the world needs in its next phase. I can’t imagine where young people are being sold the “false dream” of a “decent job” from when all you have to do is look around any boardroom, any middle management meeting, most of the benches of the houses of parliament and wonder where young people get sold their aspiration from, but try and get in any of those spaces without a degree?

Where do you get your news?
Apparently now more than ever young people are getting their news from TikTok, I can confirm that I am not on news side of TikTok and right now based on my TikTok algorithm I’d really like to be on the news side, TikTok if you are spying on us all, please take me there, but do keep the ones that I am there for the recipe as much as a production (IYKYK)

Ofcom have confirmed that a staggering 28% of 12–15-year-olds find out about issues and current affairs through the app, with YouTube and Instagram a joint second at 25%. Which seems a lot, but I’m old and of a generation where you only got the news if you parents listened to it on the radio or put on the evening news before bedtime and then of a generation where if I want to see a discussion around the news I go to Twitter, which in it own way is not less problematic than going to TikTok.

I do like how this article ends, with quotes from Christopher StokelWalker in The Observer that this is just a sign that news has evolved and not to involve in “format snobbishness” because after all “we no longer present the news in dinner jackets and bow ties” and you actually can’t argue with that.

We’re still all going to call it Twitter right?
It has just broken that later today Musk intends to rename and rebrand Twitter to “X”. Much like Cif is still Jif & Oil of Olay is still Oil of Ulay. I am just that old, I remember the fail whale.

He tweeted with a picture of the new icon that “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he said. The intention of replacing said icon blue bird with just a white X on a black background is to take the platform in the new direction, I don’t imagine the intended direction was elite strip club vibes and was likely a more hopeful one to entice some advertising revenue back to the platform to reduce that heavy debt load he apparently didn’t know he was taking on.

Not the first attempted rebrand of Twitter under Musks control, remember that moment in time where the sweet little blue bird was replaced with Cryptos Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu puppy dog that caused a surge in its market value? In the race to make the western worlds version of WeChat, would I trust twitter with making my bank payments? Absolutely not, just my low key sociable mental illness.

Do you partake in “phubbing”
I was this week years old when I found out what the term “phubbing” meant. I would also like to say this is a terrible portmanteau or a portmantNO if you wish of the phrase “phone snubbing”. I absolutely phone snub my other half, it is literally connected to my person at all times and although I am getting better at leaving it behind, that is morning Rachael behaviour and by the evening I definitely would rather mindlessly scroll than watch the news, or Pointless or the OneShow.

No great surprise if you indulge in “phubbing”, I can’t say it without air quotes its stupid, adversely impacts relational happiness as well as personal wellbeing, one of those behaviours we all do but also don’t think is a big deal, might in fact be a big deal.

Just knowing there is such an awful word for it makes me want to stop doing it. The study acknowledges the limitations of self-reporting of data and makes a more fascinating read than the article itself.

Let’s talk about feedback
Oof, this was a heavy collective endeavour chat for a midmorning Friday work meeting, but it was enlightening. I have joined a very self-aware organisation that really do those human relationships over human resources piece well, with some incredible product offerings to both us as employees as much as our clients.

I’ve had the recent pleasure of going through one of those flag ship programs and being incredibly uncomfortable throughout, uncomfortable with how comfortable I feel in the harder conversations in working relationships, but more awkwardly how uncomfortable I feel in the good conversations of working relationships.

Mostly to date because those experiences have been either a set up…this thing you did was amazing, congratulations BUT or here’s some more work, or here this project will fail needs a face that’s not mine so yours will do. The fated words of “do you have time for a quick chat later”, like failing to move forward on the ridiculous progress scale at end of year reviews because you don’t ever set print margins on any spreadsheet you created, when the person literally sat next to you all year and could have mentioned kindly at any time they wanted you to do that.

It was a really positive forum where a wonderful colleague who is a little bit further forward their acceptance of new culture journey beautifully articulated the challenge, to most of the organisation and the impact of that kindness to open up the pathways for discussion on the real impact of feedback will not be forgotten.

Current watch: The Diary of a CEO Russell Brand FINALLY Opens Up: Escaping A Lifetime Of Anxiety, Addiction & Finding Love! – Ooof I do not recommend this lightly, this was an incredibly uncomfortable hour and 45 minutes of my life, I have some interesting feelings about both Steven Bartlett and very separately Russell Brand, but a good friend of mine threw my own phrase back at me and told me to sit with the discomfort, you might learn something or confirm something. Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions. Objectively it’s hard to argue with the passion, insight and self-awareness that Brand has (sitting on the fact I don’t believe that redemption would have been available if he was a women) and from that there is always something to learn, even if it’s a fundamental inability to know how Steven Bartlett can just work in his socks.

Current read:
Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain by James Bloodworth – An unflinching look at modern Britain, that I think considering this was published in 2019 and just how much has changed since them, long entrenched austerity now with cost of living icing. While this book doesn’t speak to new themes, it speaks to them directly where I live, in the UK, with places I have visited and even know better than that. It’s very readable, the perception is relatable and the there are some glimmers of hope and joy in the human condition.

Most Impactful Listen: CrowdScience: Why do we get bored? – I stumbled across CrowdScience entirely by accident and what a perfect episode to drop as the first since I found it! A listener inspired wander through the science and psychology around the phenomenon of being “bored”. Marnie Chesterton and a whole host of incredible contributors explain how boredom is not created equally, how it is the mother of all invention and how to embrace those bored moments to get the most impact from them. I definitely think I will come back to this episode when I am not sure.