This Working Life

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 recr...

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 car...

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”. B...

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...

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....

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 M...

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-Australia...

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...

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 , Autho...

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...

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 globa...

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 & Socie...

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 e...

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...

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 Coach...

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 co...

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...

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

Do more of what matters without burning out. In Effortless Greg McKeown implores us to move away from the cult of busy and overwork.  He argues to achieve breakthrough results, we need to save our energy by inverting the question “How can I work harder?” to become “How can I make this easier?” (This program was first broadcast on Monday 19 July 2021.) Producer: Maria Tickle