Blog

I have been taking my plastic swords to unsuspecting victims in the name of o2. This time, instead of call centres and head offices, it was primary school children from Oldham that got the opportunity to test their swordsman skills and their musketeer career potential.
The primary school children who swapped football and basketball dribbling for fencing lunging yesterday, usually have 3StyleSports running their PE classes but yesterday had the opportunity to fence their classmates in the playground. 3 StyleSports is a youth project that is supported by Think Big and ran by Andy Williams who I met at a Think Big residential I attended a few months ago. He uses the financial and business support Think Big give, to increase sports participation amongst youngsters in the Oldham area, who are given little opportunities to go to after school clubs and other sports clubs because of their financial restrictions.�
I brought some fencing kit for them to try the alternative sport of fencing. One of the great things I saw from the fencing session was the lifting of normal sporting stereotypes. Because there aren’t strong gender associations attached to fencing, unlike dance and football (also covered by 3StyleSport,) all of the kids took it on with a fervour that Andy said he rarely sees from both girls and boys in the same session.�
The picture above shows some of the children who took part.

Hannah

As the day approached, I was really looking forward to our next community day, our previous community days had been working outside supporting local schools and parks but this was to support a hostel in Keighley called Keyhouse and we were going to be painting – now this could get messy!

We all arrived at the hostel on the day rearing to go and was welcomed by the lovely staff who had provided us with hot drinks and homemade cakes - yummy! They talked us through what they wanted us to do - paint 12 rooms in one day!  Is that possible? – even DIY SOS don’t do that!

We divided into pairs and off we went with paint, rollers and brushes to find a room that needed a makeover, we had music playing as we worked away and by lunchtime we had put the first coat of paint on the walls, at that point we felt that we can do this and we were all even more determined to get it done.

By the end of the day, those who had finished their rooms were going to help others finish theirs, it was a real team spirit. I can say for all of us that it was a really good day, we finished all the rooms and left feeling proud but achy, tired and full of paint!

Debbie

At O2 it is so easy to feel comfortable at work, I’m not just talking about the comfy chairs but the people and the dress code. You never would have thought what you wear would have such an impact on how productive you are. Especially working in sponsorship one key ingredient is creativity. This is strangely made easier through wearing clothes you feel happy in. You wouldn’t be out of place in a shirt or polo and jeans. Wonderful! But this weather is certainly not making choice of attire any easier- that time of year when it looks perfectly fine and you get outside to find its freezing!

Obviously I don’t have vast experience of working in various offices but from the few work placements I have done I can safely say O2 have got it right. Some might say the location isn’t the greatest, but once you see the office and step inside you totally forget where you are. It’s all those quirky little touches that actually make you want to get up and come to work. From cardboard cut outs of squirrels to meeting rooms with individual themes like Rugby or the O2 Academies.  This is what makes working at O2 on Bath Road one of the easiest and best places to stay from 9-5.

Although I say 9-5, I have slowly started realising that you often find yourself staying till much later. At first glance this may seem terrible but I found myself at the office till 8:15pm last night and was perfectly fine with it.

As I have said before the mindset here is very much; work hard, play hard.

Jonny