Posts Tagged ‘Greg Canty’

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New Baby. Mum. Dad. Parent. Career …

November 28, 2022

Hazel, my granddaughter was one year old recently- where did that year fly to?!

I’ve carefully watched Brendan and Ayla looking after this little treasure and it definitely seems to be quite a different scenario for parents today compared to when I was a young dad.

With the nature of their work (and some COVID thrown into the bargain) both Brendan and Ayla have been able to spend equal time with Hazel, enjoying every little change in her, and why not ?!

If you ignore their particular set of circumstances and imagine life as a “normal” working couple, things would have been quite different.

Ayla would have taken her 26 weeks paid maternity leave and then had to make a decision to extend that by another 16 weeks and then possibly another few weeks. All in all she could spend a year at home with Hazel unless she decided to stop working for a while.

Watching Ayla, I can only imagine how hard it would be for any mother to return to work after spending all of that exclusive time with their baby.

As for Brendan, he would have been able to take his two weeks leave at the beginning and that would be that – his daddy time would be when he gets home from work and weekends.

I can see how he has treasured the last year with Hazel and how amazing is that, but in truth he was one of the very lucky dads.

If you bring “work” into the equation in that normal situation, there would have been huge career disruption for Ayla, and not so much for Brendan.

On one side of the coin there is precious time with the new baby, but with that comes career disruption and on the other side there is little baby bonding time and no career disruption.

What’s the alternative, is there a better way, or is this the only practical solution to bringing our precious children into this world of ours?

Watching Brendan and Ayla with Hazel I think it’s only fair that society creates an equal opportunity for both to be parents and for both to share that precious first year.

Except for the obvious “biological” leave at the beginning, there should be an equal / sharing of the leave, allowing both to enjoy parenting and maintain their careers at the same time

While this might seem like a radical idea to us in Ireland, it is the norm in the Scandinavian countries, and you can understand why.

So, for all the Brendan and Ayla’s out there, maybe some day it could be like that for new parents in Ireland!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Caring, Family, Parenting, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

It’s time to hug again!

November 7, 2022

“Welcome” I said and I reached out to hug her to make her feel welcome.

Suddenly I had an aggressive finger being pointed in my face and eyes of fire glaring back at me.

“I don’t do hugs” she said.

I stood there for a few seconds quite confused, thinking this was some kind of a joke, until I realised it wasn’t!!

I was totally taken aback as this is a person we knew and would have considered to have had a “good” relationship with before this interaction, and in fact there would have been routine goodbye hugs the last time we had met.

This incident happened many years ago and at the time it totally floored me. My nature is to be warm and friendly and a “signal” of this would have been a hug, one of my ways of conveying a genuine welcome.

Instead of reflecting on what I considered to be the positive aspects (at least I thought so) of my personality, I did the opposite and ever since greetings have been cautious and it has brought out a much more guarded Greg. And of course then we had Covid, which added an even bigger barrier between people and how we greeted each other.

Walking the dog with my headphones on just this weekend, I stumbled upon an episode of the wonderful podcast, ‘Heavyweight’ called “Cody” , which touched on the subject of hugs and I am so grateful for what I heard.

Basically, a kid who lost his mum suddenly received a random, huge hug from his football coach who he barely knew and he claims that it changed his life.

He was lost and hurting and this hug was exactly what he needed from someone, in fact anyone, and his coach delivered just that.

Neither of these men were “huggers” but they both realised at big moments in their lives, the power of a genuine hug, and since then it is part of their daily practice to be generous with warm hugs to their friends and colleagues and also, not to be afraid to say “I love you” when it’s appropriate.

To the producers of this podcast, thank you and to anyone I have had an encounter with since that very odd interaction, I sincerely apologize for being guarded and I hope you were still made to feel welcome by me.

It’s time to hug again ….

Greg

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Bereavement, Caring, Communications, Family, Friendship | Leave a Comment »

Two fingers to Putin, grab a blanket!

October 12, 2022

Am I the only one that has noticed the big temperature drop?

For the last week the house (yep, we are still home working!) has been absolutely freezing – after the dog walk first thing your body is still warm, but after a while you can feel the cold starting to creep into your bones.

While it is the easiest thing to fire on the heating in the house or turn on the electric rad in my room, instead I am reaching for a blanket, draping it over my legs and saying out loud..,

“F**k you Putin, you aren’t going to get any of our money!”

….and besides, why not wrap up and help to reduce our carbon emissions, which is something we should all be doing when we can?

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Bullying, Motivation | Leave a Comment »

The ones you go further for..

July 21, 2022

You know the different types…

The one you do everything for, they want extra and they appreciate nothing.

The one who trusts you to do what you promised, you do even more and they appreciate everything.

A meeting cancels and I have an hour free that I wasn’t expecting….

Which client do I want to give that extra time to??

This stuff is easy, we hopefully learn how to get the best from people as we go, it’s not rocket science!

Trust the professionals to do what they promised, be nice and say thanks

#WinHappy

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Caring, Customer Care, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity | 2 Comments »

New cars and 1st world problems

July 19, 2022

I was sitting on the wall outside Cogans Toyota dealership in Carrigaline in glorious sunshine on this Friday afternoon.

Dee was inside going through the paperwork before she collected her brand new car and I was trying to do the necessary to change over the insurance.

I took the contact number from the insurance disk and began the process….”we are experiencing a high volume of calls“.

I was now on hold and at the beginning of another frustrating loop of waiting while listening to auto messages on the AXA Insurance “customer line”.

“Our lines are busy and you will be waiting for 10 minutes. If you prefer click 1 and we will send you a link”

I did that and the damn link didn’t work and I found myself back at the beginning of the queue.

It looked for my e-mail address and the nine digit policy number – what was on the disk was more than nine numbers.

After hearing the “10 minute” message over and over for at least 10 minutes it eventually changed to a “5 minute” message.

This repeated over and over for at least 10 minutes and my frustration was building and building: “your call will be answered in under 5 minutes”, over and over.

A thought struck me ….what a silly 1st world problem…

It’s a gorgeous Friday

You are about to collect a new car

….Life is pretty good

I imagined a Ukrainian woman sitting on a wall somewhere with her two children, hungry and scared.

Her partner is fighting in a brutal war, her home has been destroyed by Russian bombs, they have left all of their belongings behind, she is in a strange country and is totally at the mercy of others to provide food and shelter to her and her children.

What is she thinking?

“Where will we be sent, will we have our own room, will my husband survive, do we start all over again – what’s going to happen to us?“

I quickly went from her nightmare to my situation when a voice came on the phone.

“How can I help you?”

I started to first explain about the long wait, the link to the website and the 9 digit policy number.

He wasn’t listening “what can I do for you?”

I explained that we were collecting a new car and I wanted to change over the insurance.

“Can you call out your 9 digit policy number please?”

“Which 9 numbers do you want?” And I called out what I did have.

“That’s an AIB policy that we underwrite, you need to call them directly” he said

“Hold on… this is the phone number listed on my disk, which brought me to you and you are telling me I have to repeat this whole process again with some other call centre?” – I wasn’t happy ..

“Do you want the AIB number or not?” He was getting short with me now.

“Why print the AXA number on the insurance disk that you issue to AIB customers if it is wrong?” I was getting just as cranky.

He hung up the phone….he was too busy for this frustrated Cork boy!

Jill in Cogan’s garage had the AIB insurance “hotline” number and literally in under two minutes the job was done.

We drove away in Dee’s beautiful new car.

We work our socks off for it but ….we are pretty damn lucky!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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A very simple gesture of a handshake to diffuse a hostile situation

June 20, 2022

I was standing at the ATM on the South Mall in Cork and suddenly from behind me I heard a booming voice “Excuse me, excuse me”.

When I turned around it was a guy on a bike shouting at people to get out out of his way as he sped through.

One of the pedestrians quite rightly had an issue with this speeding cyclist who should have kept his racing for the road and suddenly the two of them were arguing.

The cyclist was way out of order so I jumped to the pedestrians defence.

“He’s right, what are you doing racing on the footpath?” I said.

Suddenly he’s in my face, a tall guy, one of these triathlon types, dressed in black from head to toe.

“What’s your problem, tell me, tell me-I was being polite, I said excuse me”

I responded “You were roaring, and besides, you shouldn’t have been cycling on the footpath”

He came closer to me and repeated what he already said. I repeated what I said and he repeated what he said, getting closer again. This was only going to escalate.

I looked at him and told him it was a waste of time talking to him if he couldn’t get the point about cycling on the footpath and I turned to walk away.

He came after me and once again he was repeating what he had already said “What’s your problem, I was being polite”

This was pointless …I looked at this tall guy, all fired up and from nowhere I found myself offering my hand to shake his. This could go either way, but it was one way of breaking the cycle (pardon the pun!)

He looked puzzled for a second and then met me in a handshake. I said “hey man, calm down, it’s a Friday”

He smiled and said “you are right, that’s what I call great conflict resolution! “

He then hugged me and said he probably shouldn’t have been on the footpath and we both wished each other a good weekend and parted ways.

My spontaneous gesture surprised even me, and I was amazed at how quickly it diffused something that could have easily turned ugly.

It turns out a handshake is hard to resist as we are programmed to treat it like a gesture of kindness or friendship – try it !!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Bullying, Caring, Communications, Cycling, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

Tom Cruise and Tom Jones teaching us older boys valuable lessons..

June 13, 2022

I don’t think it’s the very best time to be an older man in this world due to a whole number of reasons and circumstances and quite frankly some quite awful examples of male personalities that we all know only too well.

At a panel discussion recently that I was chairing for a client, we tried to take on a number of issues about bias including Gender, Race and LGBTQ and how these issues may affect the workplace dynamic and career progression. At this session I heard for the first time the expression “male, pale and stale” which was used by one of the participants when referring to men of my age group and older (over fifties effectively).

It struck me that while we were talking about biases, here was quite a blatant one and I realised that this is how many would view me, my generation and older. They have us written off!!

When we give an opinion, when we apply for a job, when we present an idea or go after an opportunity are we written off by many because quiet frankly we are viewed as being “male, pale and stale”?

I was talking to a male colleague who recently applied for a board position and from the credentials that were required, you could not get a better fit. Knowing him I would 100% want him sitting around the board room table providing guidance and wisdom and with a huge moral compass.

He wasn’t even considered because of, you guessed it ..a gender quota and an organisation trying to be politically correct and balance the male/female ratio.

While I understand some of the rationale for this policy, I can also understand how my colleague felt in this scenario where merit is discarded – he is talented, qualified and experienced but sadly the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong colour and instead of getting frustrated, maybe accepting his lot and throwing in the towel, putting on the slippers and instead deciding to coast to retirement?

All of this can start to make us older boys, feel irrelevant, past it and possibly done and dusted and suddenly our whole mindset shifts to a poor place.

I went to see Top Gun: Maverick last week and I saw 61 year old Tom Cruise in the all action movie. He looked great, he apparently flew those fighter jets himself, drove the fast motorbikes and got the girl!

And just this weekend I went to see 82 year old, great grandfather, Tom Jones (not my choice !!) entertain a packed house at The Marquee in Cork, full of energy and passion. He was brilliant and totally different to what I was expecting.

In a funny way both of the Tom’s shifted my thinking and reminded me that we still have so much to give and so much of this is down to our attitude.

I can’t do anything about my colour or my gender, but I’m definitely not that stale guy that you think I might be. Most importantly I must make sure that I don’t think it!

Age is a mindset..

Greg

Greg Canty is a Principal of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland.

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Posted in Entertainment, Motivation, Personal development | 3 Comments »

Three Weddings and a Funeral

May 26, 2022

February of this year was heart-breaking for the whole family as Liam, Dee’s older brother passed away very unexpectedly from an illness that we all expected him to fully recover from. You can just imagine the deep shock and sorrow experienced by everyone in the family as well as by his friends and colleagues.

As I sat with the family in the church in Tralee for the funeral mass it was so comforting to see friends and family paying their respects and I was very surprised to see my buddy, Fr. John Aherne on the altar with the local priest.

Fr. John had agreed to marry Rachel (Liam’s daughter) and Michael that year and he popped along to support and offer some comfort – he’s not from the parish and went out of his way to be there, despite having his own obligations that morning. This kind gesture meant so much to us and the family.

Despite the family not being very religious or regular churchgoers, I was really impressed how the local priest officiated the funeral mass, this incredibly sad occasion, and how well he had prepared with so much information about Liam and the legacy he left behind. He brought him to life in a special way and helped everyone on this tough day.

Sadly I found myself in Dungarvan for another funeral a month later. My uncle Noel passed away while mountain climbing with friends and it was clear from the sheer number of attendees how he touched so many lives with his work as a teacher and the general work that he did in the community, in particular for those with special needs.

Noel, wasn’t “a believer”, he wasn’t a regular churchgoer and yet again I was so impressed by the expertise of the priest who officiated the funeral mass and how he brought Noel to life in conjunction with the family and their beautiful eulogies.

And less than a month later I was at yet another funeral. My cousin Christopher, a young man who lost his battle with cancer. I witnessed yet another priest expertly officiating the funeral mass and honouring his life and legacy.

Three different priests and my friend, Fr.John, all incredible professionals operating at the top of their game, performing the most delicate of tasks for people when they are at their most vulnerable.

There is such a balance between holding the hand of those family members that are in deep sorrow and at the same time celebrating the life of the beloved person that we have lost.

A few weeks later and I’m back in church again but this time it is for a wedding!

It’s the wedding of Rachel and Michael, a happy occasion but also a very sad and emotionally raw one because Liam wasn’t there and it was still so close after he had passed.

We met Fr.John the night before for dinner and I asked him about how he was going to approach this special occasion because it did carry that huge weight of sadness – there was no getting away from it.

He didn’t go into any detail but he said he had it covered.

Rachel and Michael came to the altar with the best man, Robert and the bridesmaids at the beginning of the ceremony.

You could feel the huge weight of sadness in the church as well as the sense of celebration.

..and Fr. John began

“I’d like to welcome you all here for the wedding of Rachel and Robert”

Rachel gave Fr. John a look, whispered loudly “It’s Michael” and the whole church spontaneously burst into laughter.

The tension was broken, we were allowed to laugh and while the sorrow never left us we were able to celebrate the special and very happy occasion.

Fr.John spoke about Liam throughout and reassured us that he was there with us celebrating.

When I spoke to him after about his huge “gaffe” he promised me that this had never happened to him before but he told me that “God works in mysterious ways” – he is right!

We never (at least I hadn’t) really consider the special role of our priests in these happy and sad occasions, and like all of the jobs that we do every day, this is their profession.

In a strange way on these huge occasions they are like the event organiser and the MC all rolled into one and what I witnessed was four different priests in different locations who each are experts at what they do.

I’m not very religious. I don’t go to mass but I do see and value the very special work that these special men do for all us.

Thank you Fr. John Aherne.

Greg

Greg Canty is a Principal of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland.

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Posted in Bereavement, Family, Friendship, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

Cashel Palace Hotel and the €15 Tea and Scone!

March 30, 2022

What are we seriously like when a printed receipt from a disgruntled customer makes the news in our national newspapers?!!

The outraged Ciara who was charged €45 and 10% gratuity for her and her two guests for their tea/coffee and scones, politely shared her receipt online and boom, outrage and national news.

Let’s pull back from this outrage for half a second and calm our “outrage” jets.

The Cashel Palace Hotel is a brand new five star hotel that has just opened after huge investment, the amount of money that most of us can only dream about. The owners had a vision and brought this fantastic property to life in the best possible way and part of this is delivering five star service to guests which does not come cheap.

This special property has most people talking in a very positive, admiring way and have no doubt it will bring business to the area, the type of clientele from Ireland and overseas who want special experiences.

If we want to sit and relax in a brand new five star property and enjoy five star linen service with the best of coffee and tea, fresh home made scones with jam, butter and cream, then this will come with a price that must cover all of that and yes, make a profit for the business!!

While €45 plus 10% gratuity (I do hate that automatic add on) is a lot of money but it is probably necessary to cover someone occupying a much in demand table for as much time as they choose.

Ciara won’t be back anytime soon but many will.

The Cashel Palace Hotel isn’t where any of us will go everyday for our scone and coffee and a chat but on that special occasion we will dress up, make it a very special occasion and enjoy the food and surroundings and pay that premium price, because sometimes you do get what you pay for.

While Starbucks will charge you the bones of €8 for the same, you know and I know that it isn’t the same because it’s not just about the scone!

So, maybe instead of outrage, let’s congratulate Adriaan Bartels, his team and the vision of the owners for being brave and creating such a special place for all of us to enjoy on those very special occasions.

Greg

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Customer Care, Handling Complaints, Marketing, Tourism, Travel | 7 Comments »

The day little Hazel comes home…

March 22, 2022

Today is a really special day in my life.

We have many of those special days throughout our lives including personal life moments, great gigs, famous Liverpool wins and even that day I scored the winner in a final of a school match where we were the total underdogs (I am probably the only one who remembers that match!).

Today is going to be another very special day because my granddaughter who I have never seen in person before comes home to Ireland from New Zealand where she was born last October.

The day Hazel was born was very special – we were at a John Spillane gig at the wonderful venue upstairs at The White Horse when the news came through on the 7th October that she was born, and while becoming a “granddad” waves in the beginning of another stage of life it was quiet overwhelming in a way that was different to everything else that came before.

There was that sense of relief that baby and mum were doing good and the elation that knowing another part of you has joined us in the crazy world of ours (and at such a crazy time).

The time since she was born has been quite strange as we have had to experience her through a mix of photos and videos online and in a way, sadly this has become the norm and five months later sometimes it’s hard to believe that I do actually have a granddaughter when they are so far away.

It must be so hard for anyone who has family and friends, who for whatever reason have decided to choose a life in a different country – quite simply I think the personal cost is too much.

I decided to write this piece today to capture my thoughts before Brendan and Ayla come home and I see little Hazel for the first time because I know that life won’t quite be the same once I see her!

Little Hazel…welcome home.

Greg

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Family, Friendship, Parenting, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

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