Wow, 10 years ago I started at the LEGO Group. It feels like a lifetime ago.
It wasn’t always an easy ride. My boss, an amazing guy I joined the company for, left within a month of me starting which meant I was made redundant! I was shocked, thrown into uncertainty and insecurity, but the company wanted to keep me, saw my abilities, so gave me 3 month’s notice, hired an amazing lady, and I remained employed. Phew!
Six moths later I was promoted to Executive Assistant to the Chief Operations Officer, but then he got promoted to CEO and moved to Denmark 🤷♀️ so within 9 months the search for a new position began again!
Over the ensuing 6 months I found myself supporting various people including the outgoing CFO and in June 2017 I became EA to the Chief Commercial Officer who, within a month, became Chief People Officer. This turned out to be the longest stint I’ve ever had supporting one person, and that lasted 2.5 years! Again, it wasn’t all plain sailing with various changes and challenges being thrown my way. In my first 3 years at LEGO, I had 7 managers. Talk about resilience and adaptability. I needed to cultivate it rapidly and in spades!
In 2019 an opportunity to become Facilities and Workplace Manager presented itself, and for the next 3 years I had an absolute ball. The global team was incredible. I learnt a new industry, threw myself into building new networks, reputation, gaining professional qualifications and understanding the world of air-conditioning, electrics, and health and safety!! I organised the annual LEGO Play Day for over 1000 employees, and curated many other fun events throughout the year for staff. I strengthened relationships with our 3rd party facilities teams and increased collaboration across our different sites. I led refurbishment and expansion projects for both the London and Slough offices, and ensured the inclusive and unique culture of the organisation shone through to everyone lucky enough to visit our offices.
In 2022 all that changed and I found myself having the redundancy conversation again. The end of an era had arrived. My life at LEGO ended. It was hard. I didn’t understand. Didn’t want to understand. I was devastated. Heartbroken 💔 Just like that, all the blood, sweat and tears (literally) of 7.5 years amounted to a ‘thanks, but no thanks’. And so I left and found myself trekking the Himalayas for a couple of weeks, escaping all the stress and trauma of my recent experiences. I switched off from the outside world, relaxed so completely, managed to clear my head, delve deep inside me and thought about what it was I wanted to do for the rest of my career.
My life at LEGO was certainly a roller-coaster 🎢 A rainbow coloured roller-coaster🌈 twisting and turning unexpectedly here and there, until it broke and came crashing down. All good things come to an end, so they same, and I realised my time at other companies prior were similar. Fun, challenging, good, bad and everything in between.
