Notes on week 41 of 2025

The Pensions Regulator

This is my third(?) week as a Design lead engagement specialist, at The Pension Regulator (TPR). 

The Brighton Office

The only physical challenge of working for TPR, is that their office is on the south coast of England in Brighton. 


From where I live in rural Staffordshire, it takes me 4 and 1/2 hours to get there. So doing a daily commute is not an option. 


If I was a permanent member of staff, I would have to spend 8 days a month in the Brighton office. As a contractor this rule doesn't apply to me, thankfully. 


But it's still useful to meet a lot of people face-to-face, so I made the effort to spend 4 days in the office this week. 


I set off early Monday morning and arrived for my first meeting at 10:30. 


The offices are really nicely laid out, look like they've recently been decorated, and have lots of meeting rooms of different sizes that you can book. 


Open plan kitchen facilities with seating areas to eat and chat are also really nice. 


But my favourite areas of the office are the activity spaces that have workbenches and power sockets and huge multi-touch screens for doing video conferences and collaborative stuff.

Walk in the park

My focus at the moment is setting up the first meeting of the new pensions data and digital working group. 


A lot of the work to source and select applicants was done by my colleague, Matt Andrews. 


Just over the road from the office is Preston park, so Matt and I walked over there and had a walking meeting discussing the history and potential future of the group.


We also got some chance later in the week to sit down with our awesome colleague Lucy stone, and talk through plans for what we needed to do.

Team Dominica

A short walk from the office, heading back into the centre of Brighton town centre, is a wonderful cafe. 


Not only do they do awesome food and drinks, but they're also a charity to help mentally challenged people getting to work. 


As someone with a range of mental health and neurodiversity diagnoses, I really appreciated what they did and basically ate there all week. 


You can follow their efforts on their website and social media.

Mental health

This week was hard on my mental health. Being in a new office, seeing people in the flesh for the first time, and having to contact switch between 121 meetings and group meetings has been stressful. 

I can afford better

It's really important to me that I get a good night's sleep. But due to my penny pinching nature, I picked an Airbnb in a relatively good location that was cheap. 


I can afford something a bit better, and should prioritise my mental health over saving money in this area.