You're starting a new job but you don't have what you need, or you certainly feel like you don't!

Why is this such a universal experience and why are employers so happy to leave people to sink or swim? 

We dive in to the good, the bad and the ugly of onboarding and try to figure out how we can be doing it better, for bosses and for workers. 

Lisa also checks in with the Australian HR Institute about new research showing the global "job hugging" trend has arrived on our shores. 

Guests: 

Dr Talya Bauer - Professor of Management at Portland State University 

Sarah McCann-Bartlett - Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Australian HR Institute 

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You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Please email us at [email protected] if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you! 

AI usage is on the rise, but its implementation within jobs and workflows is causing problems. 

Research shows there is a capability gap amongst Australian workers, and a lack of AI fluency and context-poor AI use is creating job strain. 

What can leaders do to turn this around?

Guests: 

Dr Rebecca Hinds, head of the Work AI Institute at Glean 

Dr Sean Gallagher, founder of Humanova and the former Director of Swinburne University's Centre for the New Workforce

Tying together what your team does within your organisation’s strategy is a key skill for middle managers and something workers at all levels can benefit from.  

Learn how a strategy is put together and ways you can work towards it. 

Guests:

Brandon Lee, Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School, consultant, researcher and executive educator   

Rebecca Murray, principal of strategy consultancy, Marlborough and Ferdinand 

If you’re always busy but feel as though you’re not getting on top of things, you may be experiencing cognitive and emotional overload. 

Liane Davey, the ‘Teamwork Doctor’, calls this “thoughtload” and offers ways to manage overwhelm and focus attention, to improve productivity and wellbeing in individuals and teams. 

Guest:

Liane Davey PhD organisational psychologist and author Thoughtload: Manage the Madness and free your Team to do great Work

Once you’ve made the decision to quit your job, it’s worth considering how to do it in a way that fits the situation. 

The researcher who coined the term, “The Great Resignation” shares his insights on different resignation styles, from the “grateful goodbye” to “bridge burning” and what managers can learn from the way employees quit.  

Guest:

Professor Anthony C. Klotz, UCL School of Management, author Jolted, Why we Quit, When to Stay and Why it Matters

Check out our companion episode Should you really quit your job?

The researcher who coined the term, "The Great Resignation", says most of us are only one event away from quitting our jobs. 

He calls them “jolts” and describes the one that led Oprah to quit her new job at 60 Minutes, and Jürgen Klopp to give up his successful role as manager of Liverpool FC. 

What motivates us to quit, what should we consider before we do it? 

Guest:

Professor Anthony C. Klotz, UCL School of Management, author Jolted, Why we Quit, When to Stay and Why it Matters

Look out for our companion episode Try This: how to quit in your podcast feed. 

The narrative around AI at work is moving away from “job apocalypse” towards jobs transforming. 

So how do you redesign roles to improve productivity and take care of the psychosocial safety and wellbeing of workers?

Guests:

John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker, Director of  Centre for Transformative Work Design, Curtin University 

If you’d like to try the S.M.A.R.T. job design assessment, the link is here.  

Have you struggled to make lasting behaviour change at work, and wondered why you can’t get to the next level?  

The author of bestsellers Hooked and Indistractable, spoke with readers who loved his books but couldn’t nail the change part. He spent the next five years researching what was missing, Beyond Belief is the result.  

Nir Eyal, behavioural design expert, author, Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Extraordinary results

Working for longer can help you financially, as well as giving you purpose, a social life and a healthier brain. 

We speak with three Australians working past retirement age, and an expert coach who helps individuals and organisations achieve longevity goals.

Guests:

Ronni Kahn AO, social entrepreneur, Founder and Visionary in Residence, OzHarvest  

Brian James, co-founder, The Copper Doctors 

Alison Hernandez, co-founder, Re-create 100 

Scientia Professor Henry Brodaty, co-director of Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, UNSW, 2026 Senior Australian of the Year

You can find Professor Henry’s Brodaty’s healthy brain ageing tips at the end of this episode.

Circadian rhythms dictate our peak times or chronotypes and they vary across the workforce, so why does everything start so early? 

Learn how these biological rhythms interact with cognitive and emotional performance and how practicing circadian-influenced leadership can help get the best out of your team. 

Guest:

Stefan Volk, Professor of Management at the University of Sydney Business School