Working Conversations

Episode 143: My Predictions for Work Life in 2024 In this episode, Dr. Janel Anderson looks into her crystal ball and predicts the future of work in the coming year. Thinking about the future can help us understand the present and be ready for what’s coming next. Dr. Anderson’s predictions address whether the era of remote work is coming to a close or not, companies doubling down on employee well-...

Episode 142: Hits or Misses? A Review of My 2023 Workplace Predictions At the start of each year, I make predictions about what the future of work holds for us in the coming year.  In this episode, I take inventory of my predictions and score myself on how accurate those predictions played out as the year unfolded. From the labor shortage to return to office (or not) to generative AI to generation...

Episode 141: On Turning 25 – An Interview with My Oldest Son In this episode, Dr. Janel Anderson catches up with her oldest son, Apple Crider, on his 25 th birthday. He’s an entrepreneurial young man making his mark on the content creation industry. In this wide-ranging conversation, they discuss career advice, leadership, life choices, and not being limited by conventional career choices.  The id...

Episode 140:  My Version of a Digital Detox  Have you ever thought about doing a digital detox? It’s the idea that, for a set period of time, you give up the mobile devices that most of us are so addicted to. It turns out that unplugging entirely for a period of days (or even weeks) doesn’t do much good in the long run. What does work? Moderating your screen time and being intentional about when y...

Episode 139:  How to Stop Phubbing Have you ever felt like someone wasn’t giving you their full attention while you were talking to them because they were also taking a peek at their phone? Or maybe they were completely distracted by their phone and not present with you. It’s known as Phubbing. Snubbing someone by splitting your attention between them and your phone.  Snub + Phone = Phub. In this...

Episode 138:  How to Prevent Misunderstandings If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes carefully crafting a three-sentence email, carefully word-smithing it to include all the subtleties needed to convey your message to this person, only to still have it result in a misunderstanding, this episode is for you! In the current era, workplace communication relies heavily on text-only mediums: think email, text...

Episode 137:  85% Productivity is the Sweet Spot Productivity is always a hot topic – and maybe never more so than now, with some people claiming more productivity working from home and others saying it’s easier to be productive in the office. While we won’t solve that dilemma in this episode, we will talk about how to be productive without burning out. Research suggests that operating at 85% maxi...

Episode 136:  STOP Multitasking Many people mistakenly believe that they can multitask. What neuroscientists have been telling us for years however, is that the human brain is a single processing system and that our brains are not set up to multitask. Instead, when you think you are multitasking, the brain is actually switching rapidly between tasks. This switching taxes the brain and has long-ter...

Episode 135:  Quiet Hiring: How to Make it Work For You Have you heard about quiet hiring? Quiet hiring is also a bit of a misnomer. It doesn’t necessarily involve hiring. Instead, quiet hiring is a term used to describe a practice of shuffling staff around to meet immediate business needs, typically without adding headcount. Often that means stretch assignments or additional training for existing...

Episode 134: What Happened to Office Etiquette? It seems there is no end to the breaches of office etiquette these days. Has working from home for the past few years left us so out of practice we don’t know how to behave professionally in an office environment anymore? Or perhaps the offenders joined the workforce during the pandemic and didn’t benefit from learning office etiquette through osmosi...

Episode 133: Six Books You’ll Love In this episode, Dr. Janel Anderson shares the six books she’s currently reading.  Yes, she’s one of those people who reads multiple books at the same time! The books she’s currently reading range in genre from biography to entrepreneurship to United States history to philosophy and self-help. And of course, there’s some fiction thrown in for good measure. She sh...

Episode 132: FOBO Is On the Rise (Fear of Becoming Obsolete) In the age of generative AI, automation, and all manner of technological advances, FOBO, or the fear of becoming obsolete is the latest phenomenon to sweep through the workplace. The most notable rise in concern is with two different groups: the first being those 18-34 years old with a college degree and the second being professionals ea...

Episode 131: The Great Unretirement A full 25% of Americans age 65 to 74 are still participating in the workforce. A growing number of them once were retired and have come back to work full-time or part-time, a trend that’s been dubbed “The Great Unretirement.” And it’s not just happening in the United States. Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Italy are all experiencing older...

Episode 130: A Typical Week in My Life + My Morning Routine (Version 2) In this episode we deviate from our typical programming and instead, I answer two questions that I get frequently: What does a typical work week look like for you? and What is your morning routine? This episode is a revision of an episode from 18 months ago (Episode 37). My morning routine has varied considerably since that ep...

Episode 129: The Explosive Growth in Green Jobs For the first time in a very long time, nurses are not the most in-demand job. Green jobs, or those that benefit the environment or conserve our planet’s natural resources, have edged out nursing for the most needed and sought-after occupation.  Green careers have been gaining momentum in recent years, and they offer a promising outlook for the job m...

Episode 128: Why People Are Rude (and Worse!) Online Have you ever wondered what makes people act strangely online, being far more aggressive or snarky than they ever would behave in person? If you’ve ever had a colleague harshly criticize you in an email or become overly hostile in a virtual meeting (or maybe you’ve done so yourself), the answer lies in the disinhibition effect. In short, people...

Episode 127: How Labor Day Can Help Predict the Future Labor Day, celebrated on the first Monday of September in the United States, is more than just a three-day weekend marking the unofficial end of summer. It carries a rich history that echoes the struggles, victories, and aspirations of the American workforce. As we honor the past on this day, we also have the opportunity to draw valuable lesso...

Episode 126: Digital Nomads and the Countries that Are Wooing Them People who choose to work anywhere in the world they please are known as digital nomads. They are at the forefront of defining an important sector in the future of work. In addition to the freedom and flexibility on the part of the nomad, nation-states are seeing the value of hosting the nomads. More and more countries want digital...

Episode 125: Stealth Working: Globetrotting or the Local Coffee Shop Where in the world are you working if you are working remotely? Those who sneak off to another part of the world (or even down the street to a local coffee shop) to work are known as stealth workers. They are working remotely without explicit authorization from their employer to be in that exact location.  In this episode, Dr. Ja...

Episode 124: Loud Quitting – What It Is and What to Do About It First there was the Great Resignation and then Quiet Quitting. The latest trend is Loud Quitting.  In this episode, Dr. Janel Anderson explains what loud quitting is (hint: it might not actually involve quitting!) and what to do about it. Are you a Loud Quitter? If you’ve ever felt disengaged at work you might be. If you’ve felt disen...

Episode 123: Micro-acknowledgment and Why It’s Hard to do Remotely When you make eye contact with a colleague who just shared a good idea or example and you give them a look of agreement, of respect, or of admiration, you are communicating a very subtle message of micro-acknowledgment. We do this very naturally in the face-to-face work environment. In meetings, in the hallways, heck – even in the...

Episode 122: What is Your Competitive Edge? What is your competitive edge? Why should we prefer you? Whether in your leadership, in your product and service offerings to your customers, or how you are as a colleague, what makes you a better choice than someone or something else? Sparked by an exceptional customer service experience in which she was overwhelmingly surprised and delighted, Dr. Janel...

Episode 121: Are Generations Still Relevant? Do all Millennials enjoy avocado toast? Are all Gen Xers cynical and jaded? And are all Gen Zers addicted to their phones and unable to hold a face-to-face conversation? Of course not! But some of the generational research would have you thinking otherwise. Recently, the Pew Research Center announced that they would not be producing new research on gene...

Episode 120: The Work from Home Impact on Families We know that the pandemic’s need for people to work from home brought about tremendous changes in the workplace, both for working professionals and for organizations in general. But what about the impact on the family unit? Does it make a difference for children and families if parents are around more, working from home? In this episode, Dr. Janel...

Episode 119: The Four Day Work Week Will Thursday become the new Friday? The four day work week is being touted as the answer to most of the ills of the modern workplace. In this episode, Dr. Janel Anderson explores how the four day work week can answer an even bigger problem that leaders face: Do we force a return to office for greater productivity and profit or do we continue with work from home...