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Lucy Kellaway

Former Associate Editor and Work & Career Columnist

Lucy Kellaway was an Associate Editor and management columnist of the FT. For 15 years her weekly Monday column poked fun at management fads and jargon and celebrated the ups and downs of office life.

She is the co-founder of the charity Now Teach.

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  • Friday, 28 April, 2023
    Life & Arts
    Dame Edna was my nanny

    Lucy Kellaway recalls the years Barry Humphries lived with her family and left her unmoved by his prototype alter ego

  • Saturday, 22 April, 2023
    UK schools
    Forcing maths on teenagers is cruel and counterproductive

    Rishi Sunak would be better focusing on primary schools than making students study the subject to age 18

  • Friday, 24 March, 2023
    UK schools
    Sweep away Ofsted grading and allow teachers to teach

    On joining the profession I was taught to fear the inspector’s call — it destroys morale and inhibits recruitment to fill shortages

  • Friday, 6 January, 2023
    Claer Barrett
    Why do Brits hate maths? Go figure

    Poor numeracy is a problem, but Rishi Sunak needs to show his workings for compulsory maths until age 18

  • Friday, 23 December, 2022
    The Weekend Essay
    Lucy Kellaway’s lessons on life from moving to the North East

    Six months after relocating from London, the former FT columnist has a new perspective on what really matters

  • Friday, 9 September, 2022
    Life & Arts
    What Esther Perel taught me about starting anew

    I’m teaching students I don’t know in an unfamiliar school. What could possibly go wrong?

  • Friday, 2 September, 2022
    House & Home
    Is there life after London? Why Lucy Kellaway left after 63 years

    What possessed Lucy Kellaway, a self-confessed ‘caricature Londoner’, to move to northern England?

  • Friday, 5 August, 2022
    The Weekend Essay
    The anxious generation — what’s bothering Britain’s schoolchildren?

    As her students await their A-level results, Lucy Kellaway reports on what schools are doing to tackle a mental health crisis

  • Tuesday, 8 March, 2022
    Career change
    Four big lessons for getting the most out of a career change

    Quitting journalism to start again as a 50-something teacher taught the value of timing and being radical

  • Wednesday, 19 January, 2022
    Travel
    Can Cliveden’s CBD spa cure insomniac Lucy Kellaway?

    A new ‘sleep experience’ at the historic English hotel promises to ‘re-energize and rejuvenate’ guests

  • Friday, 14 January, 2022
    The Weekend Essay
    Why is it still considered OK to be ageist?

    Lucy Kellaway on an unspoken prejudice — and a puzzling discrimination against our future selves

  • Friday, 19 November, 2021
    FT Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign
    Crypto in the classroom: Lucy Kellaway on the kids’ new craze

    In an age when trading apps have made investment cool, understanding money is more important than ever for school children

  • Tuesday, 14 September, 2021
    FT Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign4 min
    How to achieve financial literacy

    Patrick Jenkins, FT deputy editor, introduces the mission of the FT's Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign (Flic)

  • Monday, 9 August, 2021
    Managing yourself
    Necessary but corrosive: Lucy Kellaway on ambition

    The former FT journalist was brought up to despise aspiration. Now she considers it a good thing, but it must be proportionate

  • Friday, 30 July, 2021
    Life & Arts
    The summer that changed my life

    From Hawaii to the Himalayas, Simon Schama, Lucy Kellaway and other FT writers on the holidays that stayed with them 

  • Wednesday, 7 July, 2021
    ReviewBiography and memoir
    Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway — an absorbing and delightful tale

    The former FT journalist writes with warmth and wit, turning her teaching experience into a frank discussion about the role of schools

  • Friday, 2 July, 2021
    The Weekend Essay
    Can you change yourself? Lucy Kellaway on the reality of reinvention

    As the pandemic prompts millions to reconsider their life choices, FT columnist-turned-teacher offers the benefit of her experience

  • Wednesday, 10 March, 2021
    ReviewFT Books Essay
    Beyond Order, by Jordan Peterson — more orders from chaos

    The culture warrior and YouTube philosopher comes across as an earnest preacher in his life-coaching sequel

  • Friday, 5 March, 2021
    The Weekend Essay
    Lucy Kellaway: what is the point of schools?

    After a year of Covid disruption, it is time to rethink our attitude to education

  • Friday, 19 February, 2021
    Management
    Telling staff to ‘buck up’ breaks management’s golden rule

    Reprimanding miserable employees during lockdown is bound to backfire

  • Friday, 18 September, 2020
    The best of the FT Weekend Festival 202052 sec
    James Suzman: 'In the 20th century, the office became the village'

    The death of the office - and our home-working future - with Lucy Kellaway, Andrew Hill and James Suzman

  • Friday, 11 September, 2020
    Life & Arts
    Lucy Kellaway heads back to school — anxiously

    After a sleepless night, a return to her classroom in an east London comprehensive brings reasons for concern — and delight

  • Friday, 10 July, 2020
    Life & Arts
    Lucy Kellaway: what my students have taught me about race

    In an east London classroom, the realities of racism come sharply into focus

  • Friday, 15 May, 2020
    Life & Arts
    Lucy Kellaway: We will miss the office if it dies

    As an FT columnist she skewered office culture — but, she argues, it is something to treasure

  • Friday, 10 April, 2020
    Life & Arts
    Lucy Kellaway: Is it OK to be happy in lockdown?

    So long as I don’t look at the news, my stress levels are as low as I can remember

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