WorkLife Stories

In this episode which recognises International Day of Disabled Persons on December 3rd, we talk to Esi Hardy, the founder of Celebrating Disability. She talks to us about her own experience of disability in the workplace and about how employers and managers can help their disabled employees and colleagues to flourish, be happy and fulfil their potential at work.

We talk to lawyer and father of two Robin Carvell-Spedding about flexible working for fathers and parental leave in the corporate world. A long-time advocate of flexibility and work life balance, Robin reflects on the impact of the pandemic on the role of fathers at home and at work and shares his views and experience of taking parental leave after the birth of his two children.

HR director Caroline Atkins reflects on her 30 year career of which 20 years has been as a working parent. She offers her advice and experience to other working parents and her views on remote, flexible and part time working that has helped her to get the most out of her career and family life.

Journalist and author Melissa Hogenboom talks to Anna Richards about the shift in identity that takes places as women become mothers as she explores in her book, The Motherhood Complex. They discuss the division of domestic responsibilities and the 'mental load' in families with two professional parents and the impact of these inequalities on women's careers, mental health and motherhood.

Simon Kettlewell has spent the last 20 years raising and caring for his 4 children. His latest novel 'Eternity Leave' draws on his experience of being the primary care-giver of his children while his partner pursued a senior level career in healthcare. In this episode, Simon talks to us about his book and the issues he has encountered around gender, identity, self-esteem and isolation. He offers his advice to new parents and anyone considering breaking the mould of the more traditional family set-up.

In our latest interview, British Nigerian author Nels Abbey talks about his experience of racism in the financial world, explains how we can all be better colleagues to each other and offers his advice to black people wanting to succeed in the corporate world as delivered through his very funny and satirical book ‘Think Like A White Man’.

As many professionals return to some office-based working, Dr Jon Finn considers the habits – both positive and negative – that have been established during the pandemic and the practical, positive steps we can take to build a healthy and productive life in the future. In this interview we explore the impact of our increased reliance on technology through the pandemic and how we can adapt our habits and routines to office, home or hybrid working.

Laura Nakano and Abigail Hadley from Accenture talk to us about the transition to working parenthood. Abby shares her experience of taking parental leave, returning to work and the different working patterns she has experienced, and Laura talks about Accenture's Expectant Parents Network and how employers can support their working parent employees.

Productivity specialist and author Grace Marshall talks to us about her new book 'Struggle' and how we can find positives and opportunities in life's more difficult times. She talks about the importance of making mistakes, allowing time and curiosity to grow and learn from them and how we can counter our natural response of fight and fight and find 'the treasure' in our struggles.

Helen Beedham talks to Pia Ellis and Mark McMahon, Co-Chairs of HSBC’s FLEX Network about their personal experiences of flexible working and how the FLEX Network is helping to broaden access to flexible working in their organisation. 

This podcast was originally recorded in Spring 2020 for Cityworks.