Pen Pushers: ‘A fantastic form of escapism and creativity’
In April and May, The Writers Workshop piloted a new lunchtime, online programme for employees at Agilio Software who expressed an interest in exploring creative writing. After a successful launch, Pen Pushers (brainchild of Writers Workshop co-director Lorna Partington) is set to continue at Agilio and, hopefully, expand to more businesses. So, what’s it all about and how can your company get involved? Lorna explains.
“I write emails all day; I’d just like to write something more creative …”
In the time my colleague Rosie Carnall and I have been running Writing Workouts, we’ve welcomed many people to our sessions who feel creatively stymied at work and are keen to exercise their imaginations. This got me thinking …
What if The Writers Workshop offered a workplace creative-writing opportunity that helps employees scratch a creative itch and helps them develop their wordsmithing skills?
What if the fee that companies paid for this service also supported The Writers Workshop’s community programming?
Lorna Partington Walsh
Boom! Pen Pushers was born: a programme for employee wellbeing that is also a fundraiser for the Writers Workshop nonprofit enterprise.
Through a friend of mine, I was introduced to Nikki Berryman, the Community Engagement & Employee Wellbeing Officer at Agilio Software, based in Sheffield, who kindly let me pitch my idea for Pen Pushers.
She explains:
Whilst researching initiatives to support employee wellbeing across our business, a colleague connected me with Lorna from The Writers Workshop. Lorna told me about ‘Pen Pushers’, and we were definitely intrigued to see how it would go.
Following a call out from Nikki, fourteen employees expressed interest, so we decided to offer two pilot sessions to test the concept. It was important to me that the hour together was fun and not too demanding, so each session featured several short writing challenges united by a theme. In April we wrote around the theme of “firsts”, and in May we were inspired by a work of art. In total, there was about 40 minutes of writing time in each session, with 20 minutes of collaborative idea generation and sharing thoughts or snippets of writing.
After the two sessions, Nikki feels that Pen Pushers is a programme that Agilio Software should continue to offer its employees.
She says:
It became immediately apparent that Pen Pushers is a fantastic form of escapism and creativity that helps to soothe the minds of colleagues who spend a lot of time in front of a PC. One colleague even found it ‘extremely therapeutic’! Participants tell me they look forward to the sessions with Lorna, who is extremely engaging and gently encourages colleagues to get involved; in this sense, it also helps promote workplace social connection, as many of our colleagues work either fully remotely or are hybrid working.
When I conceived the idea, I didn’t realise the potential of Pen Pushers for workplace connection, but it was great to host employees from all corners of the UK, as well as one from the Netherlands!
Now that Agilio Software has helped me test the concept, I’m keen to find more companies in Sheffield and beyond that might benefit from this programme too. Nikki says:
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Pen Pushers to other companies, it is a fantastic initiative that your teams will really enjoy.
Here is some feedback I received from participants:
‘I didn't know what to expect but really enjoyed the sessions - surprisingly therapeutic and challenging. A good exercise in thinking and expressing thoughts differently.’
‘The time constraints made it easy to focus and get stuck in – I enjoyed the variety that each segment of the session brought.’
‘The prompts were interesting and helpful. And the sharing was wholesome and kind.’
‘10/10 would write again (once my wrist recovers).’
So, please get in touch if you’re interested in bringing Pen Pushers to your workplace!