More Humanity and No More ‘Nice’ Work: Sue Higgs' Wish List for 2023

There’s a lot I don’t want in 2023.

Like tokenism, echo chambers. Unfathomable acronyms.

Businesses that talk a good game then treat their staff like shit.

Work that’s pleased so many on PowerPoint, but bores the pants of the viewer IRL.

The work that’s so “Nice”, it ends up wall and chip paper.

People who work in the industry and talk it down. How are clients supposed to respect us when we don’t respect ourselves?

Instead, I’d like more compassion and respect around the way we talk about each other and the work. It’s hard to make anything. And I believe it’s not what you say, it’s how.

I’d like more DEI representation in leadership teams, we fight our way to the middle only to find the sea of same. 

More humanity wouldn’t go amiss. 

I’d like to see work that touches me as a living breathing human, not as an algorithm.

I’d like some work that makes me laugh; humour is the shortest distance between two people. Car and beer ads are taking themselves far too seriously and no one cares. 

Some madness and creative genius that’s tethered in some insightful rational thinking.

And well-crafted if that’s ok, with investment in talent, not tick box.

I want to see those who are still being protected because they’re ‘senior’ when everyone knows their behaviour is unacceptable outed, so it’s not on the victim to carry the shame. When I get less DMs about this, I’ll be happy.

I’d like more honesty. More truth. More laughs.

Less hubris. Less bullshit jargon. 

And a holiday in the Caribbean. 

Not asking for much, right?