The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]


There’s Close, And There’s HR Close …
July 3, 2025, 7:15 am
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Colenso, Health, Si Vicars

A few weeks before I left for Cannes, Colenso Towers experienced a dose of gastro that took half the agency out.

I don’t know who was patient zero, but I have my suspicions [Augustine, cough cough] but after bravely fighting against the virus, I too was eventually taken down – resulting in me feeling utterly terrible at home for a few days.

But not as terrible as the plumbing system in Auckland must have experienced that week.

Or my local supermarket, where I went to buy some fruit, and then – to my utter mortification – start vomiting as soon as I walked in. Whether I can ever show my face in there again is in question, but it does show how utterly ill I was.

How everyone at Colenso was.

But the thing that is special about the place is that it’s full of great humans who happen to be creativly talented. So rather than everyone trying to be some macho, toxic bullshit – people are genuinely compassionate about others. Even towards me, which is bordering on bonkers.

No one sums this up than Simon Vicars, our CCO.

What can I say about the man that I have not written before?

Put simply, Si is horrifically talented … disgustingly brilliant and outrageously decent.

OK, so he can also be a mischievous bastard, but he does it with such a warm smile you find yourself thanking him for his abuse – which now I come to think of it, is next-level toxic manipulation. But let’s put that aside for now as it ruins the rest of this post … but the fact is, when I was at home feeling like death, Si checked in on how I was.

More than that, he checked in on the weekend when he could/should have been spending it with his own family.

OK, it was just a text.

In fact it was just a text comprising of 4 words.

But as he is one of the industries most awarded writers, you know those 4 words really conveyed compassion, concern and care.

Or that’s what he will likely argue at the HR tribunal.

Love you Si … you delightful freak.

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