Is This Working?

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We're joined this week by Holiday Phillips, a sociologist, coach and advisor on organisational culture, to talk about the concept of bringing your whole self to work.

We're also asking listeners to call in with their best office Christmas party stories, call us on 020 3289 9403 and leave us a message with your festive funnies.

This episode was sponsored by MOO, the online print and design company. The kind folks at MOO are offering an exclusive 20% off at MOO for listeners of Is This Working. Simply enter the code ISTHISWORKING at moo.com for 20% off your order*

Links

• Holiday Phillips: https://www.instagram.com/holidayphillips
• https://www.holidayphillips.com/

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

*This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, Gift Cards or applied to previously placed orders

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This week, we're talking about office politics. Why it happens and how to deal with it. We're also asking listeners to call in with their best office Christmas party stories, call us on 020 3289 9403 and leave us a message with your festive funnies.

This episode was sponsored by MOO, the online print and design company. The kind folks at MOO are offering an exclusive 20% off at MOO for listeners of Is This Working. Simply enter the code ISTHISWORKING at moo.com for 20% off your order*

Links

• The Underlying Psychology of Office Politics,Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic for Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2014/12/the-underlying-psychology-of-office-politics
• Whether you like it or not, office politics is unavoidable, George Binney, Philip Glanfield and Gerhard Wilke for LSE, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2018/06/08/whether-you-like-it-or-not-office-politics-is-unavoidable/
• Office Politics Isn’t Something You Can Sit Out, Kathleen Kelley Reardon for Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2015/01/office-politics-isnt-something-you-can-sit-out

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

*This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, Gift Cards or applied to previously placed orders

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This week, we're joined by the author Gretchen Rubin to talk about how our personality types affect our work. Gretchen is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. On this episode we spoke about her best selling book, The Four Tendencies, a framework for understanding how we respond to expectations and in turn how to use that insight to improve our working lives.

This episode was sponsored by MOO, the online print and design company. The kind folks at MOO are offering an exclusive 20% off at MOO for listeners of Is This Working. Simply enter the code ISTHISWORKING at moo.com for 20% off your order*

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

Links

Gretchen Rubin: https://gretchenrubin.com/

The Four Tendencies book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Tendencies-Indispensable-Personality-Profiles/dp/1524760919

Figure out your tendency by taking the quiz: https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/

*This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, Gift Cards or applied to previously placed orders

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Journalist and broadcaster Harriet Minter joins us this week to talk about resilience. Even though it’s not as sexy as some other concepts related to our work, Harriet argues that building resistance is one of the most important things we can do for our careers. 

This episode was sponsored by MOO, the online print and design company. The kind folks at MOO are offering an exclusive 20% off at MOO for listeners of Is This Working. Simply enter the code ISTHISWORKING at moo.com for 20% off your order*

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

Links

Harriet Minter, Journalist & broadcaster: https://twitter.com/HarrietMinter https://tinyletter.com/HarrietMinter

Anna Codrea-Rado and Harriet Minter’s Freelancer Away Day: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/freelancer-away-day-tickets-76799034981

Lemn Sissay on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/s6-bonus-episode-how-to-fail-lemn-sissay/id1407451189?i=1000456542426 

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant 

Rising Strong by Brene Brown

Getting Fired At 29 Was The Best Thing To Happen To Me, Tiffany Philippou: https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-gb/2019/07/237705/getting-fired-how-to-get-another-job

How’s Work? by Esther Perel, https://howswork.estherperel.com/ 

The Dark Side of Resilience, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic & Derek Lusk: https://hbr.org/2017/08/the-dark-side-of-resilience 

How to manage stress, Mind, https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/developing-resilience/#.XdQXMTL7SwU

*This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, Gift Cards or applied to previously placed orders

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In this episode, we talk about what's really motivating us. We look at what science says about where motivation comes from and how work environments aren't designed to encourage it. Then we offer up some practical tips for finding motivation if you're struggling to get stuff done.

This episode was sponsored by MOO, the online print and design company. The kind folks at MOO are offering an exclusive 20% off at MOO for listeners of Is This Working. Simply enter the code ISTHISWORKING at moo.com for 20% off your order*

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

Links 

Definition of motivation: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/motivation

Maslow's hierarchy of needs: https://brightthemag.com/turning-maslow-s-hierarchy-on-its-head-80acf0ce1906

Alfie Kohn on motivational studies: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/opinion/sunday/science-rewards-behavior.html

Creativity Can't Be Hacked by Anna Codrea-Rado https://forge.medium.com/creativity-cant-be-hacked-5adc7ab52f1a

Teal Swan's priceless motivational tip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsJiznzUJGM&t=5s

*This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, Gift Cards or applied to previously placed orders

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In the first episode of season two, Anna speaks to author Jessica Pan about a short passage in Jessica’s book that made Anna think a lot about how people find fulfilment in their work and how office culture often doesn’t align with our personal values. 

Jessica Pan, is the author of Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come: An Introvert’s Year of Living Dangerously. Listen to the show to find out how the midnight oil award changed her life. 

This episode was sponsored by MOO, the online print and design company. The kind folks at MOO are offering an exclusive 20% off at MOO for listeners of Is This Working. Simply enter the code ISTHISWORKING at moo.com for 20% off your order*

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

• Sorry I’m late, I Didn’t Want to Come, by Jessica Pan: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sorry-Late-Didnt-Want-Come/dp/0857526154
• 'Who is the queen?' And other ways to get talking to strangers by Jessica Pan for The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/02/who-is-the-queen-ways-get-talking-to-strangers
• Why work doesn’t happen at work, Jason Fried for TED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XD2kNopsUs

*This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, Gift Cards or applied to previously placed orders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show notes

In this week’s episode of Is This Working?, the podcast that questions the impact of work on our lives, we talk about bad bosses and ask - why do managers suck?  

For our season finale, we talk about our own experience with bad bosses and we try to work out whether we’ve been good managers ourselves. 

We discuss the structures in place that make it hard for managers to be good at managing. We then talk about what can be done if you have a bad boss or if you want to become a better manager yourself. 

That’s all for season one. Please do let us know what you want from season 2. Thanks for listening!

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

Links 

• Ask a Manager, by Alison Green: https://www.thecut.com/tags/ask-a-boss/
•  Ask a Boss, column by Alison Green for The Cut: https://www.thecut.com/author/alison-green/
• Only One in 10 People Possess the Talent to Manage, bY Amy Adkins for Gallup: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236579/one-people-possess-talent-manage.aspx
• Truly Human Leadership by Bob Chapman: https://www.trulyhumanleadership.com/
• Why good leaders make you feel safe, by Simon Sinek for TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe?language=en#t-694479
• Manual of Me, Matthew Knight: https://www.manualof.me/

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In this week’s episode of Is This Working?, the podcast that questions the impact of work on our lives, we talk about side hustles and we ask - why are we monetising our hobbies?

Side hustles are on the up, so what does the increase in people pursuing them say about what our main jobs aren’t able to provide us? We talk about blurring the boundaries between work and leisure and our culture that allows us to monetise every aspect of our lives. We also talk about how companies should be thinking about their employees pursuing side hustles. 

We end with some practical tips for anyone who is thinking of starting a side hustle. 

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

Links 

• Is Work Working?, Anna Codrea-Rado as a guest on Women’s Hour, BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007x4s
• Are you a victim of corporate gaslighting? By Alex Holder for Grazia
• The Side Hustle Economy, report by The Henley Business School: https://assets.henley.ac.uk/defaultUploads/PDFs/news/Journalists-Regatta-Henley_Business_School_whitepaper_DIGITAL.pdf
• Working & Struggling To Make Ends Meet? You Are Not Alone by Vicky Spratt for Refinery 29: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/working-poor-ifs-report
• The cult of the 5 to 9 'side hustle' by Hannah Flint for ES Magazine: https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/side-hustle-other-job-a4185831.html
• The toxic fantasy of the “side hustle” by Alex Collinson for Prospect: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/side-hustle-meaning-work-second-jobs
• Drag queen or delivery driver: What's your 'side hustle'? By Eleanor Lawrie for BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46793506
• The Ultimate Side-Hustle How-to Guide: 10 Rules for Side-Hustle Success by Jeff Haden for Inc: https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-side-hustle-how-to-guide-10-rules-for-side-hustle-success.html
• How the '20% time' rule led to Google's most innovative products by Petrana Radulovic for Mashable: https://mashable.com/2018/05/11/google-20-percent-rule/?europe=true
• Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/

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In this week's episode, we're talking about productivity. Why do we feel like we’re not getting things done? We talk about what it means to be productive and ask why we’re so obsessed with productivity hacks. We also share our own tips for getting work done. 

Get in touch

We want to hear from you because this podcast is all about how we can improve your working lives. Get in touch with any questions you have about your working life. 

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @isthis_working

Links 

• Creativity Can’t Be Hacked by Anna Codrea-Rado for Forge: https://forge.medium.com/creativity-cant-be-hacked-5adc7ab52f1a 
• UK productivity continues lost decade, BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47826195
• Four of the best life hacks from the world's extreme productivity gurus by Anna Codrea-Rado for Wired: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/best-life-hacks-productivity
• If/then planning: https://hbr.org/2014/05/get-your-team-to-do-what-it-says-its-going-to-do
• Best Buy’s ROWE experiment: https://slate.com/business/2014/05/best-buys-rowe-experiment-can-results-only-work-environments-actually-be-successful.html
• Oliver Burkeman on not waiting to feel like doing something: https://www.thecut.com/2016/04/this-is-the-best-advice-on-motivation-i-have-ever-read.html

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