This Working Life

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”. But, talk about it we must.

Amanda Rose, Western Sydney Women founder

Author and journalist Rick Morton

Lisa Annese, CEO of Diversity Council Australia

Producers: Kara Jensen-Mackinnon and Maria Tickle

This episode was first broadcast on 31 May 2021

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 more efficient, less daunting, and some argue, free from bias... so how does it stack up? And given these technological advancements, is it time to call the CV obsolete?

Guests:

Charles Cameron -  CEO of RCSA Australia & New Zealand (Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association)

Barb Hyman - CEO of PredictiveHire

Professor Andreas Leibbrandt - Monash University

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.We also hear stories of pandemic career changes from software engineer Zubin, UX designer Fern and clinical researcher Fay.

Producer: Maria Tickle

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 Media Group and author, Inclusion Revolution

Juliet Bourke - Professor of Practice and non-executive director at the UNSW Business School

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-Australian Leadership at the Australian National University

Tim Soutphommasane – Director, Culture Strategy & Acting Director, Sydney Policy Lab, and Professor of Practice (Sociology and Political Theory) at the University of Sydney. Former Race Discrimination Commissioner (2013-2018)

Octavia Goredema – Career Coach & Author of PREP, PUSH, PIVOT

Jean Jing Yin Sum – Life Transformations Coach & Host, Asian Women Rising

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 and hear what’s happening, how they’re feeling and get some tips on how to get through this tough period.

Guests:

Professor Kim Felmingham - Chair of Clinical Psychology in the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne

Karen Gately - Founder, Corporate Dojo

With thanks to the managers who shared their stories with us:

Natalie Feehan - Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, EstimateOne

Lia Pacquola - Head of PR and Corporate Communications MYOB

Adam Chalk - Owner and Manager, Buddha Bowl Cafe

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, Author, speaker and trainer on mindset and resilience

Dr Kari Leibowitz, Health psychologist and mindset researcher, Stanford University

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 employee and business wellbeing.

Guests:

Professor Paula Brough, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University

Dr Vicki Webster, Founder and Director of Incisive Leaders

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 global workplace experiment and what we can learn from the early adopters.

Guests:

Andrew Barnes – Founder, Perpetual Guardian and 4 Day Week Global

Alex Pang – Founder, Strategy and Rest

Nikki Beaumont - Founder and CEO, Beaumont People

Kath Blackham – Founder and CEO, Versa

Sasha D’Arcy – Four-day-week employee at Inventium