Lifestyle

Redefining The Office Space with Muge Yalcin

Published

4 years ago

September 7, 2021

The way we work has changed forever. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, remote working was seen as a luxury, often even regarded with some level of suspicion and disdain as an ‘easy days work.’ Fast forward to 2021, and most offices have implemented home working as an alternative work mode for employees. Everyday office work is seen as ‘outdated’ and indicates that a company doesn’t seek to accommodate its workers with a more comfortable home/life working balance.

My name is Muge Yalcin and I am a senior Property manager at Vodafone. My experience has spanned decades and I for one am not surprised by the redefinition of the workplace. I have collated and devised four tips for companies that are seeking to implement a hybrid working pattern for their employees.

I am devoted to bettering the lives of employees through streamlining repetitive processes and engineering solutions that lead to better outcomes for people and businesses. With 17 years of business experience, I have witnessed many trends within the office environment and know what solutions and strategies help companies develop their work in the digital environment.

Here are four tips to enhance and create your digital workplace.

Look into options.

There is a burgeoning demand for digital workplace options to be facilitated for employees in the post-COVID-19 economy. As a result, companies are expected to provide alternative solutions to work that are feasible and comfortable and offer opportunities for collaboration and networking with colleagues.

Championing employees in the digital workplace is crucial, and this can be achieved through creating platforms and spaces that encourage social interaction. This helps facilitate and foster a team environment in which colleagues still feel connected and a part of a wider team working towards common goals.

Empower employees and enhance wellbeing.

Empowering employees in the digital workplace may seem complicated, but attention to proven strategies and careful implementation of such tools can be achieved with positive results. Providing employees with adequate tools and technology to do their job is, first and foremost, a crucial aspect of boosting productivity and morale. This should involve polished and automated digital workspaces, desktop and app virtualization, and file sharing and team collaboration opportunities. Access to support for technical issues also helps appease employees’ anxiety about being out of the office and working remotely.

Sir Richard Branson recently has been quoted as stating, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients”.

This sense of service to your employees takes form in the digital workplace by creating digital platforms for collaborations and discussions, focusing on instant messaging tools, which are the preferred mode of contact for many home workers.

As the digital workplace seems to divide employees by distance, regular communication tools to remind employees of the company vision and goals are welcome in helping to focus teams on a common purpose. Regular, upbeat, and concise communications will help align employees with business goals and ensure engagement and productivity among the team remain high.

Evolve

No digital workplace should be dormant and unchanging, but rather an evolving platform designed by business intelligence and feedback from users and employees. This business intelligence has seen ‘desk booking’ apps available for employees who wish to attend the office. Input from employees will continually expand and modify the digital workplace as different people will want to see other things. This will see a much richer and diverse hybrid workspace that offers inspiration and motivation for all users.

Generating reports and collecting statistics can help provide a clearer picture, portrayed by accurate data representing employee feedback. Enhancing innovation and ensuring the hybrid workplace remains the pulse of employees’ inspiration is the goal. A solid commitment to digital transformation sends a clear message to employees that the company is growing and working toward innovation and change. Agility in the digital workplace reflects the need for employees to be agile and develop a commitment to learning and innovation.

Integrated digital/physical workplace

The digital workplace will evolve and grow into a versatile and varied Centrepoint for employee interaction and business functions. Hybrid workplaces may become the norm in future times and I am offering my leading business advice and solutions for my company that wants to thrive in the new marketplace. Employee and customer satisfaction remain at the forefront of my expertise agenda, and I believe the digital space can become a space that sparks creativity, innovation, and outstanding achievement.

Lifestyle

When Seasons Shift: Dr. Leeshe Grimes on Grief, Loneliness, and Finding Light Again

Published

11 hours ago

February 22, 2026

Michelle Langton

Some emotional storms arrive without warning. A sudden change in weather, a holiday approaching, or even a bright sunny day can stir feelings that don’t match the world outside. For many people, the hardest seasons are not defined by temperature; they are defined by what’s happening inside, where grief and loneliness often move quietly.

This is the emotional terrain where Dr. Leeshe Grimes has spent her career doing some of her most meaningful work. As a psychotherapist, registered play therapist, retired U.S. Army combat veteran, and founder of Elevated Minds in the DMV area, she understands how deeply seasonal shifts and unresolved grief can affect people. Her upcoming books explore this very space, guiding readers through the emotional weight that can appear during different times of the year.

What sets Dr. Grimes apart is her ability to see clearly what many people overlook. Seasonal depression, for example, is usually tied to winter months. But she often sees it appear during warm, bright seasons, the times when the world seems happiest. For someone already grieving or feeling disconnected, watching others travel, celebrate, or gather can create its own kind of heaviness. Sunshine doesn’t always lift the mood; sometimes it highlights what feels missing.

The same misunderstanding surrounds grief. Society often treats it as a short-term experience with predictable phases and a clean ending. But in her practice, Dr. Grimes sees how grief keeps evolving. It doesn’t disappear on a timeline. It weaves itself into routines, memories, and milestones. People learn to carry it differently, but they rarely leave it behind completely. And that’s not failure, it’s human.

Her approach to mental health centers on truth rather than pressure. She encourages clients to acknowledge the emotions they try to hide: sadness that lingers longer than expected, moments of joy that feel out of place, and the waves of loneliness that return even when life seems stable. Instead of pushing for quick recovery, she focuses on helping people understand how emotions shift and how to care for themselves through those changes.

Much of her insight comes from her military years, where she witnessed the emotional toll of loss, transition, and constant survival. She saw how people continued functioning while carrying pain that had nowhere to go. That experience shaped her belief that healing requires space, space to feel, to speak, and to move through emotions without judgment.

In her clinical work today at Elevated Minds, she encourages people to build small, steady habits that anchor them during difficult seasons. Journaling helps them recognize patterns and name what feels heavy. Community support breaks the cycle of isolation. Therapy creates a place where emotions don’t have to be minimized or explained away. And intentional routines, daily sunlight, mindful breaks, and calm evenings help rebuild emotional balance.

Her upcoming books expand on these ideas, offering practical guidance for navigating both grief and seasonal depression. She focuses on helping readers understand that healing is not about escaping pain. It’s about learning how to live with it in a healthier way, honoring memories, acknowledging loneliness, and still allowing room for moments of light.

What makes Dr. Leeshe Grimes a compelling voice in mental health is her ability to bring language to experiences that many struggle to explain. She reminds people that emotional seasons don’t always match the weather and that there is no single path through grief. But within those shifts, she believes there is always a way forward.

The seasons will continue to change. And with the right tools, compassion, and support, people can change with them, finding steadiness, softness, and light again, one step at a time.