Most people would imagine company boardrooms to be serious and formal places where people pour over spreadsheets and have earnest discussions about investments, but that was far from the case at The Cumberland where foam clay and messy paints were the order of the day.
The reason for such unlikely scenes was the building society hosting a creative therapy session in its boardroom as part of The Cumberland’s Wellbeing Day, an annual event which encourages Cumberland colleagues to openly discuss and focus on subjects such as mental and physical health, neurodiversity, and mindfulness.
The event also included talks on nutrition, reiki demonstrations, and mental health seminars, all rounded off with a 5k run.
The creative session was hosted by Agata Ostapowicz and Ada Gumula, founders of Carlisle’s unique new art cafe Sketch and Sip.
Agata said: “We’ve brought in foam clay, paints and mirrors and the idea is that people can have a very relaxing time, forgetting about everything that’s going on for an hour. Instead, people can really focus on making something and explore their creative side.”
The session was one of the most popular aspects of the wellbeing day with around 30 people taking time out to join in.
Among them was Dan Abbott who works in customer care and used the foam clay to create a mini Lake District.
“I’ve enjoyed the session – it’s nice to spend some time when you’re not looking at a screen. It has been good for everyone and nice to spend time with colleagues and see another side to them.”
Alongside him was Olivia Hales, also from customer care, who was decorating a mirror. “It’s a good way to bond with people from other areas of the business,” she said.
Jess Hartley is one of The Cumberland’s mental health and wellbeing champions and helped organise the wellbeing day. She was delighted that so many people had taken part, adding: “We chose to have the theme of resilience this year because we believe it is important for The Cumberland to have a resilient workforce in order to continue thriving
“Resilience isn’t about being strong and putting on a brave face – it’s having the skills to overcome challenges and the ability to grow and move forward positively
“We had a full programme of events during the day including some great speakers talking about nutrition and mental health. We’ve also had time to discuss resilience with colleagues and think about new ways of relaxing and taking care of our minds and bodies. We’re making sure we have lots of extra material online available for colleagues in our branches.
“The creative session with Agata and Ada was really popular and was booked up almost as soon as we had it online so we’ve held it in the boardroom so we can squeeze in more people,” said Jess.
Just as popular was Agata and Ada’s stint in the Cumberland’s canteen where they served up 75 portions of their signature pancakes.
