This Working Life

Meaning, purpose, identity – all of these are wrapped up in our work and career. So it's no surprise that when we step away from work we can feel a bit unmoored. In the second half of our two-part special on the 'unretirement' movement, we look at what's underpinning this return to work in retirement years. It can come down to rediscovering purpose and meaning in both life and work. But how can we...

While you might be dreaming about the day you can clock off work forever — why are we instead seeing so many people leaving the green and re-opening the laptop? It's all part of a trend being dubbed the 'great unretirement', in which 40% of the nearly half a million people who entered the labour force in the last three years were over the age of 55. Which has led to Australian workers now retiring...

We’ve all had to work with ‘that’ difficult person that we just clash with. It’s tense. It’s stressful. And it’s exhausting. So, do we have to get along to do our best work? Or is it in our best interests to make peace and move on? And how can we best do that? The solutions might surprise you.

We’ve seen the Great Resignation, Lying Flat in China and Quiet Quitting. And now we’re hearing murmurings of another movement that some are calling ‘Anti-Striving’. So what exactly is it? And what will making peace with feeling less ambitious bring us in the long-term?

How inclusive are workplaces for the rainbow community? What is working and what needs improving? We hear how small things like conversation starters can help LGBTIQ+ people feel more welcome and safe at work, and how larger things like equitable design in physical and virtual spaces can improve belonging and job satisfaction.

Our image and expectation of a good leader is changing, and increasingly we’re needing them to use both their head and their heart in making decisions. Dr Kirstin Ferguson argues that the art of this type of leadership is knowing what is needed when. So what does this balancing act really look like? 

Saying "yes" too often can leave you feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a bit resentful. You might hear yourself saying "yes of course I can" when your inner voice is screaming "no!" So here's how you can say "no" more often at work, without feeling rude. 

We've learned about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and how they can influence each other. But if we go deeper into the heart of motivation, we find its kernel: engagement. So how can we be truly engaged in our work?

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.

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.

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? 

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 lear...

Many of us are enjoying the flexibility of working from home - being able to organise our work time to suit our circadian rhythms, family responsibilities and health. But with this flexibility and freedom, has there been an erosion of the concept of a “work day”?  What boundaries should there be - in law or in your employment agreement?

Feeling a bit brain fried? Fatigued from the year… over stimulated from all that screen time? Maybe you need to head outside...We look at how getting out into the natural world can help you function better in your day to day work life. What’s going on here with our brains, what’s the science behind it?

Taking very small doses of magic mushrooms or LSD every few days in a bid to boost productivity, creativity, focus and mental health has become perhaps surprisingly popular in Australia and around the globe. People are experimenting with tiny doses of illegal psychedelic drugs to help them perform better at work. But why take this risk, and does it even work? Scientific studies on microdosing are ...

Premortems - How to practise hindsight in advance, by looking at what went wrong before it does. And on the flip side, imagining success and how you got there, with a previctorem.

When is an interaction an interruption? Why do we now feel the need to ask if it’s OK to interrupt a colleague, in the middle of a work day? And hybrid work has made managing communication even more nuanced, yet crucial. Our guests explore the benefits of talking, and what we lose when we stick to typing.

Office renos for the hybrid world....organisations with empty floors are figuring out how to make the office more useful and attractive. Guests: Evodia Alaterou - design strategist at Hassell, principal in the Melbourne studio  Ethan Bernstein - associate professor of business administration at  Harvard Business School. Peter Wheatley - PWC workplaces leader Presenter: Lisa Leong Producer: Sarah A...

Tony Fadell was instrumental in creating the iPod and the IPhone.  He shares in his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making - that his greatest successes have come from his greatest failures. And he has some dooseys. 

Micro stressors - they’re just a normal part of the day, right? From when you wake up and check your messages, listen to the news, wrangle your kids, jostle your way to work, and then deal with that colleague…you’re stressed without anything major actually happening. Rob Cross says the people who maintain and prioritise their social connections, often through shared activities, are way less affect...

This Working Life explores ideas that are shaping changes in workplaces.

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...

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.