http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/ The latest Blog feeds from www.fireflycoaching.nz en-us Sat, 10 Oct 2026 02:22:32 +1300 Rocketspark http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/170798/job-crafting-in-the-public-sector-how-i-stayed-8-years-in-the-same-role/ Before branching into coaching, I worked in the New Zealand public sector, for 20 years.For eight of those years, I worked in the same policy team, with the same manager and the same core group of colleagues. How did I manage to last eight years in one place? People have asked me this on more than one occasion. Usually, I’ve answered that good projects just kept coming along and that I had the best manager I’ve ever had.That’s not the whole truth though. I had several dips in motivation, a... Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:30:00 +1300 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post170798 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/170753/why-i-designed-a-one-session-job-audit/ If you’re a woman in her 30s or 40s, navigating on a daily basis the turbulence in the New Zealand public sector, but also wanting to keep her career moving and developing, it may not feel like the best of times work-wise.The usual ways to progress your public sector career have become less dependable. Promotion rounds don’t seem to be happening with the frequency they used to, if at all, more people are holding onto their roles for longer, and restructures are resulting in job cuts – and ... Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:30:00 +1300 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post170753 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/170539/can-your-current-public-sector-role-be-reshaped-how-to-tell/ As we’ve learnt over the four posts of my mini-blog-post-series on job crafting, almost anyone in any job can do job crafting, including people in a public sector career in New Zealand. What’s job crafting? If you missed the earlier posts, job crafting is a process that you can use to reshape your role to better fit your work preferences and career goals.You might be sceptical though: ‘What about my specific job? I don’t think job crafting will work.’And you may be right.I’m going to... Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:19:56 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post170539 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/170054/job-crafting-for-what-holds-you-back-at-work-4-of-4/ Aaaargh. It was 3.15pm on a Monday. I was a Principal Advisor at a large Crown entity, and was standing over a photocopier to make sure it didn’t run out of paper while printing a 100-page document.Although the report was important, with a deadline set by legislation, and I’m not against ‘getting my hands dirty’, I was fuming. There was another deadline also looming and I wanted to be back at my desk doing the thinking for that.This situation – feeling frustrated by admin or other task... Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:21:05 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post170054 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/169761/how-increasing-your-job-demands-is-good-for-your-career-mini-series-3-of-4/ Hi again. I’m back today with the third of four posts in my mini-series on job crafting. Glad you’re here!In the first post in the series, I outlined what job crafting is [link], why you might choose to job craft, how to do it and what it can bring you in your job and career. The second post went down into the detail of the ‘increasing resources’ dimension of job crafting, that is, the ‘structural’ and social resources you have at your disposal at work to help you meet the demands of... Mon, 07 Sep 2026 13:52:33 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post169761 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/169397/resources-that-fuel-your-career-progression-without-changing-jobs-first-mini-series-2-of-4/ And we’re back! This week’s blog post is the second in a 4-part mini-series on the process of job crafting – what it is, what it can do for you in your work and career in the public sector, and how you actually do it.In last week’s post, I outlined the job crafting process as a whole. That’s how you can redesign your job yourself in smaller or more radical ways to make it fit better with your work goals and preferences, and to stretch you in ways that also develop your career without y... Mon, 31 Aug 2026 13:11:36 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post169397 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/168992/job-crafting-blog-post-mini-series-1-of-4-is-job-crafting-right-for-you-what-makes-it-come-more-easily/ What is job crafting? Why might someone want to craft their job? Can you do job crafting?These are all good questions, and together, they provide the structure for my blog post this week. It’s a topic I’m really into, because it’s a way that you can take charge of your work and progress your career, without actually leaving your current job.You may not be as excited about your role as you were when you first started, but that doesn’t mean you’re willing or able to just change jobs, esp... Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:30:57 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post168992 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/168807/why-you-dont-need-to-hang-your-hopes-on-the-promotion-round-to-progress-your-public-sector-career/ You’re not imagining it. It really is harder to move up and progress your career in the New Zealand public sector these days.The quantitative data from the 2025 Public Service Census shows that of the 46% of people who were thinking of leaving their jobs in the following 12 months, 42% said it was because of a lack of career progression in their current jobs. And in the open-ended comments, people shared that they didn’t think their organisations were doing enough to develop and retain their... Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:59:59 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post168807 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/168609/three-ideas-for-busting-your-public-sector-work-stress/ In one of my public sector jobs, I was involved in preparing important organisational reports. They were required by statute, had to be submitted to Parliament and needed to be approved by the Leadership Team and the Board. But at my organisation, both of those groups were under huge pressure and scrutiny, and getting them to engage so that my colleagues and I could finalise the documents was hard.This is one of the many situations in public sector work that cause tangible work pressure and stre... Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:59:18 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post168609 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/post/168249/reflections-what-ive-learned-working-with-women-in-the-public-sector/ I’ve been doing some reflection recently on work and career progression in the public sector.When I first looked at the Public Service Census data last year, I was captured by the statistic that 44% of respondents said they were often or always stressed at work in the public service in the 12 months prior. I consider it quite an indictment on how work in the public sector is designed – even though I remain a loyal public sector supporter.But when I think through my conversations with women I... Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:56:43 +1200 http://www.fireflycoaching.nz/blog/#post168249