But I'm a Professional!

In this episode, I'm talking to the team behind the research project Bloody Work, which is about managing menstrual disorders at work. Drs. Cara Reed , Jenna Pandeli , and Helen Williams are investigating the hidden physical and emotional labour employees undertake to manage painful or leaking bodies while remaining productive. We discuss the motivation for the project, participants' exper...

Listen to Part 1 first to understand our references to the Puritans and the Work Ethic. In this episode, Professor Anderson and I discuss whether tech bros are the latest version of landlords that the Puritans would have despised; the core source of the feminisation of poverty; how labour is entirely mis-valued; and the invisible apparatus of unpaid care work that firmly holds an ungrateful capita...

Sometimes when you have big questions about work, science can't help you. When the questions concern one's understanding of self, of what is 'good' and 'right', and what we ought to do - well, you need to talk to a philosopher. In this episode, I speak with Professor Elizabeth Anderson - John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's & Gende...

Does remote work really make us lonely? Is the Right to Disconnect enough as a written policy in the face of power imbalances? How can organisations shape the implementation of remote work so that it actually... works? Dr Eva Rimbau Gilabert talks to me in this episode about all of the above, and so much more! Find Eva's research here . Follow Eva's LinkedIn Follow Nancy's LinkedIn Cit...

What does it mean when people say an organisation is "Queer friendly"? What is the tension between a place of work and one's pursuit of emancipation? Can Queer alternatives improve public discourse about the Future of Work? In this episode, Dr. Olimpia Burchiellaro and I engage in dialogue on these topics and more! Find her substack here and her book here . Other People and Works cit...

Sometimes our bodies experience events that are complicated and difficult - and not necessarily compatible with how we, our organisation, and even society desires a certain neatness in relation to work. This episode I speak with Dr Heidi Reed from Audencia Business School . Her research looks at Vulnerability and often draws on Ethics of Care. We talk about her research on and lived experience of...

The discourse surrounding the Future of Work still needs a lot of improvement. With far too much power handed over to that which does not have society’s best interest at heart, we may be in danger of forgetting a few important things. We have agency. The future has not happened. There is hope. In this episode, I talk to Dr Nicky Dries of the Future of Work Lab, KU Leuven. We discuss what is still...

Women are frequently told that they ought to be more confident at work. Confidence is offered as a silver bullet of sorts for all and every challenge women encounter in their careers. But do women actually 'lack confidence' at work - or is it simply a convenient way to ignore structural issues? Is it an individual barrier that must be overcome - or are there more useful actions available?...

Do you have a career calling? What does it mean and where does it come from? How is it shaped by our work environments? Is it always positive, or is there also a dark side? This episode, I talk with Sophie Gerdel about the concept of a career calling. We discuss what it means, how it can be of use, and its potentials in the Future of Work. Follow Sophie and her work on her LinkedIn . Also, conside...

Are humanoids the future of work? Will humans be replaced by robots in the next decade? Is AI something that ought to be thought of as a colleague? These are some of the questions for my guest today as we discuss the future of robots at work! I talk to Professor Tiziana C. Callari from the University of Turin who pursues these themes in her research. In an effort to separate hype from reality, we...

In season five, I'll talk to scholars and experts who study the world of work. Tune in to hear what evidence-based recommendations they have on topics like resilience, leadership, wellbeing, ageism, AI, dignity, and much much more!

In this episode, I attempt to cut through the AI hype and focus instead on practical workplace applications. I explore how professionals can actively incorporate AI into their workflow to reduce hindrance stressors rather than create new ones. Neither 'doomerist' nor overly optimistic, this episode examines the concept of "Human-AI Task Fit" through an Organisational & Occupa...

What EDI initiative will produce meaningful change in your organisation? Good question. "Of the hundreds of studies we examine, a small fraction speak convincingly to the questions of whether, why, and under what conditions a given type of intervention works," ( Paluck and Green, 2009 , p.339). That was a review published 15 years ago. Surely, things are different now! "The past dec...

Normally stress is something we try to avoid at work. In fairness, some days it feels everlasting. However, are all stressors made alike? Is there any use in some? Does it ever help in our work function? In this episode, I highlight some of the research on something called 'hindrance stressors' and 'challenge stressors'. I give you examples of both, and discuss how challenge can be...

Dear Manager, how can you notice performance gains, increase learning, engagement, information sharing, and improve commitment? I'll give you a hint... the answer does not involve shouts, rants, rages, screams, humiliation, nor punishment. It happens in spaces where a team feels safe enough to share problems, mistakes, and concerns - and rely on interpersonal exchanges to overcome them. Tune i...

Contemporary careers come with a lot of change. Sometimes we seek out the change ourselves when, for example, we pursue promotion and are successful. Sometimes change happens to us - we're made redundant or the organisation shifts direction and is no longer a good fit. Changes, shifts, and transitions in a career are challenging. So how do we cope? How do we remain that captain of our ship eve...

According to a recently published report in McKinsey on Women in the Workplace (2024), men continue to significantly outnumber women at the manager level, making it difficult for companies to support sustained progress at more senior levels like the C-Suite. In a bizarre twist, research tells us that Organisations with women in leadership positions are more likely to be innovative and to have impr...

Employees working later into life (and as a result, teams becoming more age-diverse) may be something you're seeing more of in your Organisation. If you haven't yet, you will before too long. So, how do we create environments and improve teamwork to benefit the best from this diversity? In this episode, I'll take you through some practical ways you can help an inter-generational team thrive. Some...

How is it that so much resource is spent on training, and yet behaviour remains unchanged? We can look to the extensive research done on the topic of training transfer and find several reasons why. And, even better, find recommendations for potential ways to make that transfer have more of an impact. If you would like to read some of the academic articles referenced in this episode, here they are:...

The relationship between attitudes and behaviours is complex. Perhaps you can immediately bring to mind some examples of how attempts to implement change at work were a major flop. So. How do we engage in the process so that change does in fact come? How do we avoid putting good resources in bad places and then have a collective panic when the same old problems persist? This episode features refer...

It's time to circle back. We've put a pin in it and we're circling back! Actually, to be completely honest, your organisation failed to put a pin in it to begin with and that's half the problem. You became a manager one day and everyone moved on with their lives. No training, no development, no new skill set. Eek! We shall right that wrong on today's episode as we go back to Th...

My dearest Managers, would you like to hear the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is: you're missing a powerful component from your tool kit. The good news: you've got a tool kit! And you've got me. Yes, we've been doing Learning a real disservice, I'm afraid. We've limited it to inadequate spaces, left it for someone else to deal with, and not sharpened our ski...

How, exactly, does one make a team work? It turns out - common assumptions that have been allowed to fester in the ol' organisational spaces aren't exactly super duper. You may be well aware of that if you look at your particular crack squad of slightly less than savvy, motivated personnel and think, "Oh, dear." Never fear, though - help is on the way! In this episode, I'll o...

This mini mini series is for the managers out there who are confounded, bemused, and perplexed at the state of affairs within their motley crew. The basics of solid, non-trend-chasing manager skills is still something we get wrong - despite having a large amount of evidence to help us get it right. So let's do that in this series - let's get some of the major wrongs right and let science l...

Either passively or intentionally, we mere overworked and underpaid mortals consume a fairly consistent feed of extraordinary claims from one day to the next. "Social media is a great place to connect with others!" - Is it? "We're reducing our carbon footprint and making real changes around here!" - Oh, are you? "We need to raise your heating/electric/food bill!"...