Leading on the Edge: Extraordinary Stories and Leadership Insights from The World's Most Extreme Workplace

Chapter 25      

Find a reason, any reason, to celebrate

When you're away from home for a year you miss a lot of things. Christmas, Easter and birthdays without friends and family and without easy access to today's communication tools such as Skype and social media — we really felt it. That's why we made a special effort to celebrate among ourselves.

Families and friends missed

The traditional celebrations were usually quite difficult and our first major event for winter was our Easter Sunday dinner.

Sunday 27th March

Easter Sunday.

Spent most of the day in bed, feeling morose, sleeping and reading. Mum and Dad were away at Gary's house and Jane and Ben were also not around. I didn't have anyone to ring.

I was more homesick today than at Christmas. I don't know why. I was missing everyone, and dealing with the constant people issues is taking its toll on me.

I asked Howie to say a few words at dinner tonight. He started to say he'd opened the package from his kids and then he broke down and just complimented Kirsten on the amazing food. I imagine he's doing it tough like some of the others. I know Matt is wishing he was anywhere but here at the moment. He applied for a six-month term but was persuaded into taking on 12 months. He'd figured 12 months wasn't that different from six. How wrong, as we can all now understand. I can't really do much to help him but I'll keep an eye on ...