I don't think there's anything quite as unnerving and but clenchingly fearful as seeing the closed management office door.

Let me explain.

I went into work with all these wonderful offices in the world of retail fashion and all the management, the managing directors,

the directors, the senior managers all had offices. Well, of course, an office says power

and it also says secrecy. And when you get called in, well, it's quite unnerving because

you never quite know what's going to happen behind

that closed door as they click, gently shut it and say, do take a seat.

And I think it's equally unnerving to be the person on the other side watching a colleague

talk with that manager.

Is it about me?

Have I done something wrong?

Why am I not in that meeting?

It's just an awful way to work.

So, at Portus, we have an open office, a very open office.

I mean, so open that the other day when I had to sob at the table,

because I had flu, I wasn't feeling

well, I lost my rag a bit not meant to, I was trying to be zen, I was trying to be kind,

it all went wrong and I sobbed at the desk and of course everybody knew. Everybody knew my mood.

And I had to also shamefully later on go around and say to everybody, I'm sorry, I'm sorry

if I got a bit ratty.

But here's the thing. It was open. It was transparent.

They knew that I cocked up, but they knew that it was okay and that I was vulnerable enough to say, I got it wrong.

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