Awareness of psychosocial safety is growing and we know how destructive bullying can be. Yet incidents continue to occur, with performance management and generational differences creating flashpoints.

Despite decades of research and tighter regulations, many organisations struggle to prevent workplace bullying. We find out why, and learn about a prevention program that is making a difference. 

What if instead of adding tasks to your long to do list, you considered what you could take away? 

Professor Leidy Klotz has a theory that can help and he’ll teach you how to start subtracting at work. And Dom Price gives a coaching session that will help you stop, reflect and figure out what to let go of. 

How is the use of artificial intelligence in meetings, recording transcripts, generating notes, listening in (!), affecting your work, and how do you feel about its presence in the 'room'?

Learn what AI can do in meetings, to improve productivity and team building, and what's still to come.

What we want in our leaders has evolved; we’ve seen a growing desire for more ethical and empathetic leaders.

But destructive leaders are still in charge in many workplaces and their impacts are far-reaching. So how can we identify them and, more importantly, change them?

We look at the personality traits and four styles of destructive leaders and get some tips on how to avoid them to help improve employee and business wellbeing.

How’s your mental health? Is it affecting your work? Or maybe it’s the other way around and your work is affecting your headspace? Employee Assistance Programs….what are the pros and cons, and how could they work better? Is confidentiality actually a problem? And if so what can be done to make it safer?

Workplace bullying is a complex and insidious problem that one in 10 of us in Australia experience at some stage in our careers.

We look at the organisational structures behind bullying itself, how many of us might be unwilling bystanders, and the impact it has on us physically and mentally.

When’s the last time you had fun at work? Really had fun? FUN. What is it, and how can it  help us enjoy work more, which of course will help us work better! How can we bring more fun into our working lives? 

Catherine Price is a science journalist and author of The Power of Fun. She also wrote How to break up with your phone. 

Are you seeking leadership nirvana? Is there even such a thing? Leadership development is such a lucrative, multi-million dollar industry but are we just throwing resources at the executive level managers with little benefit to the broader organisation? Are we going about leadership development all wrong?

Burning out has become a phrase thrown around almost as often as anxiety. But being stressed and overworked is not actually burnout. There is  more to it.

Individuals can’t fight burnout alone - things have to change in our organisations. This is what the ‘pioneer’ of burnout theory and research has found.

It’s Christina Maslach's measurement tool that’s been used by workplaces and the World Health Organisation to assess if someone’s burning out - the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

What's it actually like to be a teacher these days? There’s a worldwide shortage of teachers at the moment, so what’s going on in the classroom and school yards? In this episode we meet a bunch of teachers and former teachers and hear first hand about the new pressures, and what’s driving them out of the profession. What needs to change about the working lives of teachers?

Have you heard of the Dunbar number? 

It’s the number of social connections one person can maintain at any one time. 

It turns out that this also plays out at work. 

How is Robin Dunbar’s  research relevant for your workplace?

What are the optimum numbers for teams and factories? 

How important are social connections and friendships at work, and how do these affect our productivity?

Guest:

Robin Dunbar is professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford. He wrote Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships and his new book, The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups, comes out next year.

Mindfulness … being mindful,  meditating, you know it’s good for you, but it just never feels like there’s enough time.

Using meditation to create mindfulness is an ancient practice, and the science backing it has been piling in for years now.

But how can we be motivated to make meditation part of our essential routine? How will it actually help our working lives? 

What’s your relationship with feedback? Maybe you’ve thought you could learn how to be better at giving it…but how about switching it round and considering how you receive it? Turns out, if we hone our skills at receiving we also get better at giving feedback.

Job cuts have been announced,  a restructure is imminent, you've got a new boss, AI is about to change your job. These events are all part of regular working life, so what can you do?

Learn why we struggle with uncertainty at work, and get some skills to help you cope.

What happens when the career you chose at 18 just isn't you anymore?

Have you ever sat at work thinking “Houston we have a problem, common sense has left the room!”? Brand and culture transformation expert Martin Lindstrom, walks us through how to bring common sense back into our workplaces by establishing what he calls a “ministry of common sense”. 

Martin has advised multinationals including Pepsi, Google, Burger King and Swiss Air but he started this movement in what traditionally has been a bastion of bureaucracy, banks.

Does your inbox make you miserable? Cal Newport walks us through why our relationship with email is dysfunctional and what a world without email looks like. Cal's book: A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in the Age of Overload

Producer: Maria Tickle

What if ADHD wasn't seen as a deficit or a disorder? What if it's actually harnessed as a superpower? We show how, given the right support and understanding, workplaces have the ability to turn ADHD into an asset and create environments where everyone thrives.

We speak with proud Torres Strait Islander woman (Kubin; Moa Island descendant) Carla McGrath and proud Yorta Yorta man Ian Hamm about what First Nations perspectives bring to governance and management.

Emotions at work - do you repress or ruminate? Both could be dangerous for your career. Harvard Medical School psychologist Dr Susan David is one of the world's leading management thinkers. Her Ted talk has been viewed more than five million times and her book Emotional Agility is a bestseller.

Susan discusses the benefits of bringing our whole selves to work; emotions as data not directives (we shouldn't let them boss us around) and why emotional agility is important for teamwork and creativity.

We take a deep dive into this medical mystery and look at how workplaces and individuals can navigate the world of work as they recover from long COVID.

Teamwork, resilience and grit – just some of the skills from sport that we can all learn from when it comes to our work. So how can the corporate world harness these skills, and what can we learn from the athlete’s mindset?

It’s not just about getting the job done when we’re working hybridly, it’s about the connections we make. And this has been lost when we’re working from home, and this is making us feel lonely.

In the second part of our hybrid work feature, we look at how hybrid work can leave us feeling lonely and disconnected, and what we can do about it.

Guests:

• Mark Mortensen - Associate Professor, INSEAD
• Dr Caroline Knight - Research Fellow, Curtin University’s Future of Work Institute
• Sasha D’Arcy - Psychologist and ‘Inventiologist’ at Inventium

Hybrid is here to stay. So, what is pandemic-driven hybrid work doing to our ability to focus and what do we need to do to find that elusive flow state in this brave new world of work?

In the first part of our hybrid work feature, we look at hybrid work and our level of focus when working from home, compared to in the office, and along the way we’ll bust some myths and get some attention hacks.

Guests:

Sue Williamson - Associate Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra

Katherine Johnson - Associate Professor in Psychology in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne

Sasha D’Arcy - Psychologist and ‘Inventiologist’ at Inventium

They’re usually the last step in the process, but reference checks are an important part of a job hire. And if you get them wrong, you can have a real situation on your hands.

What's best practice when it comes to reference checking: whether you’re hiring, trying to be hired, or giving a reference for someone else?

What is your role in your family of origin? Jester, responsible one, black sheep or peacemaker, we all have one. But did you know the role you have inherited or the values and beliefs your family held could be holding you back at work? Professor Deborah Ancona runs us through how to recognise the “family ghosts” and how to bust them.

Guests:

Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloane School of Management

Rebekah Donaldson, executive manager, people group at Qantas

Anetta Pizag, workplace design consultant, strategist and author.

HBR article Deborah co-wrote, Family Ghosts in the Executive Suite

Producer: Maria Tickle

Would you call yourself an introvert, or an extrovert? Or are you a bit of both?

When it comes to personality traits and states, it’s not black and white. It’s a spectrum.

But sometimes we still desire a label or a name for what we are. Many of us have done personality tests for fun, or have been asked to do a psychometric test when applying for a job.

Here in Australia, around 40 per cent of recruiters and employers ask candidates or employees to do one of these tests.

But how helpful are they, really, when it comes to our work?

Guests:

Luke Smillie - Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne

Nick Haslam - Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne

Dr Martin Boult - Psychologist and Senior Director Professional Services at The Myers-Briggs Company, Asia Pacific

What was your first job, and what did it teach you?

We’re turning back the clocks and heading back into the supermarket and greasy fast-food joints to find out just why first jobs are so crucial in our careers and what they can teach us.

If we put on our detective caps, we can look at our first jobs and pick up the little clues and insights about ourselves that can help us navigate our current career. And if you have kids, or are mentoring young people, we learn how we can advise teenagers on what to look for in their first job.

Guests:

Professor Julia Richardson, Curtin University School of Management and Marketing

Daisy Turnbull, teacher and author 50 Questions to Ask Your Teens: A Guide to Fostering Communication and Confidence in Young Adults

Cryotherapy, sleep apps and binaural beats, are just some or the more than 20 biohacks Lisa Leong uses to perform her best at work. Are they useful or a complete waste of time and or money? We recruited three scientists to run the research filter over these hacks.

This episode was originally broadcast on Tuesday 12th November 2019

Even today, the class you are born into can largely determine your career. Research by Diversity Council Australia shows that more than any other diversity demographic, it was social class which most determined Australian workers’ experience of inclusion or exclusion at work. 

Talking about class at work can be awkward, especially when most Australians believe we live in the land of a “fair go”. But, talk about it we must.

Amanda Rose, Western Sydney Women founder

Author and journalist Rick Morton

Lisa Annese, CEO of Diversity Council Australia

Producers: Kara Jensen-Mackinnon and Maria Tickle

This episode was first broadcast on 31 May 2021

Imagine you’re applying for a job. You’re asked a few questions and have a conversation online. But it’s not with a human. It’s with a chatbot. How would you feel? Possibly relaxed? Maybe even a bit more confident? More likely to apply for that job, if there’s no intimidating interview panel? Probably.

AI is increasingly being used in recruitment and it’s being employed to make the hiring process more efficient, less daunting, and some argue, free from bias... so how does it stack up? And given these technological advancements, is it time to call the CV obsolete?

Guests:

Charles Cameron -  CEO of RCSA Australia & New Zealand (Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association)

Barb Hyman - CEO of PredictiveHire

Professor Andreas Leibbrandt - Monash University

Call it what you like, The Great Resignation, The Great Reshuffle, or even The Great Reimagination, the employment landscape in Australia has changed radically in the past two years. 

CEO of the Australian HR Institute Sarah McCann Bartlett and career coach Kate Richardson talk us through how can you use this moment in time to your career advantage and what businesses need to do to get through it.We also hear stories of pandemic career changes from software engineer Zubin, UX designer Fern and clinical researcher Fay.

Producer: Maria Tickle

Australia’s renowned for its multiculturalism. But when it comes to the workplace and leadership positions, that diversity isn’t represented. So, what’s going on?

In part two of our special series, we dive into some solutions to improve diversity and inclusion at work to see Australia's multiculturalism reflected in leadership positions.

Guests:

Daisy Auger-Dominguez - Chief People Officer, VICE Media Group and author, Inclusion Revolution

Juliet Bourke - Professor of Practice and non-executive director at the UNSW Business School

Australia’s renowned for its multiculturalism. But when it comes to the workplace and leadership positions, that diversity isn’t represented. So, what’s going on?

In part one of our special series we dive into cultural diversity and inclusion at work - what’s behind the lack of diversity in leadership roles, and what can be done about it.

Guests:

Jieh-Yung Lo – Director, Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership at the Australian National University

Tim Soutphommasane – Director, Culture Strategy & Acting Director, Sydney Policy Lab, and Professor of Practice (Sociology and Political Theory) at the University of Sydney. Former Race Discrimination Commissioner (2013-2018)

Octavia Goredema – Career Coach & Author of PREP, PUSH, PIVOT

Jean Jing Yin Sum – Life Transformations Coach & Host, Asian Women Rising

We’ve been living through the greatest workplace disruption in generations. Now, two years and counting of Covid here in Australia, that volatility isn’t going anywhere and business managers are struggling.

Energy is low, resilience is low, and staff numbers are fluctuating as people fall ill to Covid. Combine, mix and stir and you’ve got the ‘Covid shiftstorm’.

We go inside the world of managers and hear what’s happening, how they’re feeling and get some tips on how to get through this tough period.

Guests:

Professor Kim Felmingham - Chair of Clinical Psychology in the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne

Karen Gately - Founder, Corporate Dojo

With thanks to the managers who shared their stories with us:

Natalie Feehan - Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, EstimateOne

Lia Pacquola - Head of PR and Corporate Communications MYOB

Adam Chalk - Owner and Manager, Buddha Bowl Cafe

The junior person feels like they’re being micromanaged, but the manager feels like the job is not being done properly. When does good supervision tip into micromanagement?

Shona Ryan had such a difficult time being micromanaged as a millennial worker, that she decided to research the topic. 

We hear what she learned, and get advice from an expert on how to break the pattern of micromanagement.

We all know the impact of stress on our minds and bodies. But it turns out that it’s not the stress itself that’s impacting our health - it’s how we think about it.

We hear from people about their experiences of work-related stress and how it impacts them, and our expert panel tell us how to change our stress mindsets so we can harness its power to work and live better.

Guests:

Alison Earl, Author, speaker and trainer on mindset and resilience

Dr Kari Leibowitz, Health psychologist and mindset researcher, Stanford University

What we want in our leaders has evolved; we’ve seen a growing desire for more ethical and empathetic leaders.

But destructive leaders are still in charge in many workplaces and their impacts are far-reaching. So how can we identify them and, more importantly, change them?

We look at the personality traits and four styles of destructive leaders and get some tips on how to avoid them to help improve employee and business wellbeing.

Guests:

Professor Paula Brough, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University

Dr Vicki Webster, Founder and Director of Incisive Leaders

Since the start of the pandemic, the global take-up of the four-day work week has accelerated.

We first looked into the pros and cons of the four-day work week back in 2020 when it was very much in its early days in Australia.

Since then, more companies and industries in Australia and around the world have adopted the four-day work week. We get the latest on what is and isn’t working in this global workplace experiment and what we can learn from the early adopters.

Guests:

Andrew Barnes – Founder, Perpetual Guardian and 4 Day Week Global

Alex Pang – Founder, Strategy and Rest

Nikki Beaumont - Founder and CEO, Beaumont People

Kath Blackham – Founder and CEO, Versa

Sasha D’Arcy – Four-day-week employee at Inventium

Workplace bullying is a complex and insidious problem that one in 10 of us in Australia experience at some stage in our careers.

We look at the organisational structures behind bullying itself, how many of us might be unwilling bystanders, and the impact it has on us physically and mentally.

Guest:

Michelle Tuckey, Professor of Work & Organisational Psychology within UniSA Justice & Society and the Centre for Workplace Excellence.

With thanks to Jessica, Neil and Therese for sharing their stories of experiencing workplace bullying.

Do you feel exhausted after being on Zoom? You’re not alone. Thanks to COVID-19, we’ve been on Zoom more than ever. From our day-to-day work to meetings and after-work social catch ups, our time spent video conferencing seems endless and it’s tiring us out.

Studies have shown that our brains are in overload during these video meetings, and that’s leading us to feel emotionally and motivationally exhausted.

We’ve asked the experts what exactly is going on in our heads when we’re in an online meeting and how we can reduce and prevent fatigue so we can feel energised and work better.

Guests:

Professor Julie Bernhardt, Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health

Professor Jeff Hancock, Stanford University

If we confront our regrets and use them as signals, they're a powerful force for working smarter and living better.

That’s according to New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink. He’s collected the regrets of thousands of people around the world and discovered what connects us in our regrets, and how we can use them to live and work better. So let go of any shame around your regrets, and learn how to harness their power.

Guest:Daniel Pink, New York Times bestselling author, most recently The Power of Regret.

With appearances from people who proudly have regrets:

Dr Tim Sharp, Chief Happiness Officer, The Happiness Institute

Ginger Gorman, Award-winning print and radio journalist

Mark Brandi, Author

Janelle Delaney, Partner at IBM

Amanda Rose, Founder of Western Sydney Women, #bosslady

Juliet Bourke, Author and Adjunct Professor UNSW Business School

Forget what you think you know about motivation.

We’ve done the work for you and found some science-based motivation hacks, so you can get the job done and actually enjoy it.

We bust some myths and find out what really motivates us - from incentives, to mindsets and increased empathy.

Resolutions don't work. Set goals the right way.

For us to really commit to a goal and achieve it, we should ensure we’re making a ‘worthy’ goal.

That’s according to author Michael Bungay Stanier who, in his new book How To Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters, gives us nine steps to help us find our worthy goal, commit to it and just begin.

Guest:

Michael Bungay Stanier, Author of The Coaching Habit and How to Begin.

Let's kickstart this 2022 working life with a few transformative ideas.

Beauty industry entrepreneur Kate Morris has given her imposter syndrome's voice in her head a name: "That's just Kevin, you can zip it Kevin," she laughs. And she gets on with her day.

And she's not alone. Researchers have found around 70 per cent of us feel like an imposter some of the time at work (...and let’s face it the other 30 per cent are probably lying). So since these feelings are so common, we've decided it's time we gave this ‘syndrome’ a rebrand and learned how use it to help, not hinder, our careers.

(This program was first broadcast on Monday June 28, 2021.)

You’ve probably got a focus music playlist but did you know being musically trained can help you in other jobs? And no, it’s not too late if you didn’t learn the piano when you were a child.

Guest: Dr Diana Tolmie - Musician and Senior Lecturer in Professional Practice at the Queensland Conservatorium

And thanks to Sophie, George, Mark and Deirdre for sharing their stories.

And if you liked this episode you’d enjoy our episode on the power of being a generalist at work - find it in our podcast feed from March 2023.

Stay curious, find comfort in being wrong and create a "challenge circle" of people who actively challenge your beliefs - these are all steps towards knowing what you don't know according to Adam Grant.

Changing careers isn’t easy - overcoming inertia is hard and knowing where to start can seem really difficult.

Career coach Kate Richardson debunks some myths and steps us through the process. We also meet some brave souls who’ve pulled it off including criminologist turned crime writer Mark Brandi, former lawyer now psychiatrist-in-training Nicca Grant and Monique Ross who left a 12-year career in digital media to follow her passion and become a forest therapy guide.

(This program was first broadcast on Monday August 9, 2021.)

Producer: Maria Tickle

Owen Eastwood shares how the Maori principle of whakapapa has helped create dynamic, inclusive cultures in some of the world's most diverse elite teams, including the England Football team for the past five years.

(This program was first broadcast on Monday 12 July 2021.)

Producer: Maria Tickle