Shows / This Working Life
This Working Life
You spend so much time on work, why accept the status quo, when there are ways to do it better? Get expert advice, research and hacks that will crush your inertia. Join Lisa Leong and other This Working Lifers as we experiment and explore the latest in the world of work. We cover policy issues, like hybrid workplaces and remote work, employee wellbeing and organisational culture, the use of AI, employee surveillance, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion. We talk about progress on wider…
Episodes
- This Working Life
Why we love and hate jargon at work
Put a pin in it, leverage that, circle back, LMK (let me know) - ugh! Some of us are drawn to use jargon and buzzwords, while others are annoyed by them.Learn…
- This Working Life
Your new team member is an AI and they’re coming to your meeting
How is the use of artificial intelligence in meetings, recording transcripts, generating notes, listening in (!), affecting your work, and how do you feel…
- This Working Life
Uncertainty at work stressing you out? Here’s how to deal with it
Job cuts have been announced, a restructure is imminent, you've got a new boss, AI is about to change your job. These events are all part of regular working…
- This Working Life
Job reference horror stories, and how to avoid them
They’re usually the last step in the process, but reference checks are an important part of a job hire. And if you get them wrong, you can have a real…
- This Working Life
Are you being micromanaged? Here’s how to break free
The junior person feels like they’re being micromanaged, but the manager feels like the job is not being done properly. When does good supervision tip into…
- This Working Life
How music’s secret skills can scale up your performance
You’ve probably got a focus music playlist but did you know being musically trained can help you in other jobs? And no, it’s not too late if you didn’t learn…
- This Working Life
What did you want to be when you grew up? Here's why it's still important.
Our childhood phantasy careers (different to fantasy with an ‘f’) help uncover our unconscious motivations and can unlock job satisfaction in our careers…
- This Working Life
What does it mean to have an ethical career? And why should you care?
"Don't we all hold many things? We all have to work jobs often we don't fully politically or ethically agree with because we have to pay our rent."When we have…
- This Working Life
How can you be a supercommunicator at work? Charles Duhigg explains...
“I can honestly say this is a question that I’ve never encountered before.”New Yorker magazine reporter and author of Supercommunicators - How to Unlock the…
- This Working Life
Workplace romances - Why do we flirt and fall in love at work?
A new person joins the team and immediately sparks fly... or perhaps you start seeing a colleague in a different light and the friendship turns into something…
- This Working Life
"Ideas are getting harder to come by" - How to strengthen your imagination muscle
Feel like you're cycling through the same old ideas? Or just tired and out of inspiration? Albert Read has some tips on how to use and strengthen your…
- This Working Life
How values can be your secret weapon at work
From creativity to collaboration, to growth and generosity, we can easily name values. But can we as easily apply them in our day-to-day work? Hear how we can…
- This Working Life
How to harness the power of stress
We all know the impact stress can have 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…
- This Working Life
Three things you can do today for peak performance at work
We all know what we need to do to be healthy and feel good so why aren't we doing it?In the fourth instalment of our special series about your health at work…
- This Working Life
Vulnerable vs oversharing at work – where’s the line?
Have you ever cried at work or been yelled at in front of your colleagues?In this third instalment of our series about your health at work we’re digging deep…
- This Working Life
The surprising key to curbing chronic pain at work
One in five of us are living and working with chronic pain. So why aren't we telling our colleagues and bosses about it?If you live with chronic pain yourself…
- This Working Life
What is job strain and how is it impacting your health?
Welcome to a special series about your health at work. In Everything's fine... we'll be diving into topics that can be tricky to talk about with our bosses and…
- This Working Life
What's the ‘Hourglass Ceiling’ behind the gender pay gap?
On average, Australian women are paid $18,461 less than men per year.The recent report released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows a gender pay gap…
- This Working Life
How to curate constructive conflict at work
So you may have witnessed some tense conflicts at work. Someone may have even raised their voice at you. But how can we harness the power of conflict at…
- This Working Life
What the 'right to disconnect' from work means for you
There's been a lot of talk about the new right to disconnect laws. But what do they mean for you, practically? In this episode you'll understand how it'll help…
- This Working Life
Zombie Leadership: How to kill the Hollywood narrative
It’s been dubbed the Hollywood narrative of leadership - that leaders are special, and that we can’t work or succeed without them.This is what Professor Alex…
- This Working Life
Can’t decide what to listen to? Try this...
It’s estimated we make up to 35,000 decisions every day so how can you make better decisions at work? Before you start drawing up pros and cons lists, listen…
- This Working Life
How you can be a Friction Fixer at work
Friction is everywhere - from our systems to our relationships at work.But there’s good news - not all friction is bad and if you know how, you can be a…
- This Working Life
Are you paying attention? This is why not.
Finding it hard to get your brain into gear for the work year?You might feel your mind wandering a bit, daydreaming of being back on the beach.To help you get…
- This Working Life
Feeling a bit stuck? Here's how to progress in your work
Feeling a little bit stuck right now? Like you want to progress on something but feel a bit glued up?Why does this happen to us? It turns out getting stuck is…
- This Working Life
Why you should say 'no' more at work
Saying "yes" too often can leave you feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a bit resentful. You might hear yourself saying "yes of course I can" when your inner…
- This Working Life
How to be a leader with both your head and your heart
Our image and expectation of a good leader is changing, and increasingly we're needing them to use both their head and their heart in making…
- This Working Life
The power of Anti-Striving and feeling less ambitious
We've seen the Great Resignation, Lying Flat in China and Quiet Quitting. And now we're hearing murmurings of another movement that some are calling…
- This Working Life
How to get along with difficult colleagues
We've all had to work with 'that' difficult person that we just clash with. It's tense. It's stressful. And it's exhausting.So, do we have to get along to do…
- This Working Life
How one woman’s ‘fail’ lets us all embrace failure at work
When we make a mistake or fail at work we might want the earth to open up and swallow us whole. But what makes a fail ‘right’ and how can we talk about it at…
- This Working Life
Curiosity - Bad for cats. Good for workers.
We know curiosity is good for us and our work, but few of us actually feel it day to day. So what’s causing this gap?We find some answers and solutions so you…
- This Working Life
"You are surrounded by your worst triggers" - the sounds that drive you up the wall at work
From loud chewing to breathing and keyboard tapping, many of you have your pet peeves when it comes to sounds at work that drive you to distraction.But for…
- This Working Life
Why so tired? The 'Great November' disease at work
“If I can just get to Christmas, fall over the finishing line, it’ll all be fixed.”Sounds about right, but unfortunately it’s not true.In this episode we’re…
- This Working Life
The case for reading fiction at work
“Fiction seems to do something in our brains that nonfiction doesn't.”What was the last book you read? And did you know it gave you something more than just…
- This Working Life
Adam Grant on how to unleash your hidden potential
How do we go from wanting to do something to actually doing it, and doing it well?According to Organisational Psychologist and Professor Adam Grant, we need to…
- This Working Life
How to escape the perfection trap
“I remember I wrote 500 words of my thesis on Christmas Day. I was really proud of that at the time.”Dr Thomas Curran is bruised from the perfection trap but…
- This Working Life
Out for blood: Energy vampires at work
They’re not creatures of the night, but creatures in every workplace.Ever had a colleague that left you feeling drained of energy after a conversation? Or…
- This Working Life
Live at SXSW - Ben Crowe and Aubrey Blanche on why peak performance is dead
Why do our ‘old’ concepts of “High Performance Team” and "Peak Performance” need a rethink?Recorded live at SXSW Sydney, we interrogate these concepts and why…
- This Working Life
URGENT! Listen to this episode (to control urgency at work)
Ever felt that overwhelming sense that there’s just not enough time to do your job? And that everything is suddenly urgent?How did we get here and how can we…
- This Working Life
Sick of meetings? Try this instead...
“If we do this, it could profoundly change how we are together.”Is your day full of meetings leaving you tired and working late just to get everything done?…
- This Working Life
What to say when you’re put on the spot at work
You’ve been asked a curveball question in a job interview, or your boss has asked what you think in a meeting. Suddenly your heart races and your palms get…
- This Working Life
How to think and work like an artist
“We are all artists, sometimes we forget that”.Even if you don’t think you have a creative job, or that you yourself are artistic, there’s a lot you can learn…
- This Working Life
The art of negotiation: How to ask for a pay rise
You want to talk with your boss about a pay rise but even just thinking about it causes your heart to race and your palms to get sweaty.So how can you navigate…
- This Working Life
How to Spring Clean your habits
Our habits, good and bad, influence how we live, and how we feel and perform at work. And if you’re human, chances are you want to shake off some bad habits…
- This Working Life
The story of Leigh Sales: Career, courage and cello
In her new book Storytellers, Leigh Sales shares hard-won lessons on how to craft a story, how to listen and how to be brave enough to ask hard questions at…
- This Working Life
How to unlock the power of envy
A colleague gets promoted. A friend lands their dream job.You feel happy for them, but also, a pang of pain... what is that? Is that envy??It’s natural to feel…
- This Working Life
The surprising lessons from leading a horse
What can guiding a horse teach us about leadership? In recent years, ‘Equine Assisted Learning’ has been used in leadership development. But what is it…
- This Working Life
Bonus Episode: A pioneering Matilda on teamwork and trust
We spoke with original Matildas player Dr Shona Bass in our recent episode The Matildas Effect but we loved her insights so much we decided to bring you the…
- This Working Life
The Matildas Effect: The power of ‘us’ at work
Yesss, we’ve got World Cup fever! So what lessons can we learn for our work from the amazing gameplay the Matildas have shown, even without star player Sam…
- This Working Life
Michael Bungay Stanier on how to work with (almost) anyone
How can we best protect (and repair) our relationships at work?When we start working with someone we tend to just dive into the work at hand. But what happens…
This Working LifeSteps to building an anti-racist workplace
What does it mean if you declare your workplace to be anti-racist? Where does lip service end and actual systemic change occur? How does this differ from…
This Working LifeMarcus Buckingham on how to find the love in what you do
There's the age old saying, do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life. But how easy is it to find what you love? What energies you, what…
- This Working Life
Micro stress: How small stuff piles up - and how to find the antidote
Micro stressors - they’re just a normal part of the day, right? From when you wake up and check your messages, listen to the news, wrangle your kids, jostle…
This Working LifeMeet the First Nations entrepreneurs transforming business
This week we meet some of the next generation of Indigenous entrepreneurs who are influencing the way we think about business and community. Drawing on the…
This Working LifeMorra Aarons-Mele on how to reclaim power over your anxiety at work
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions, but in the workplace, we don’t tend to talk openly about them. Based on her own journey…
- This Working Life
Seth Godin on how not to be a cog in the machine
In Seth’s latest book, The Song of Significance he gives us insight into what real leadership looks like and how it can transform the way we work.
- This Working Life
Why good people do bad things
“It just seems some of the lessons about ethical behaviour don’t appear to have really sunk in” - Peter Ryan, ABC's senior business correspondent, reflecting…
- This Working Life
“It transforms work and life outside of work.” The growth of the 4 day work week
If you could work four days instead of five, for the same pay, would you? Organisations and businesses around the world are tentatively saying 'yes' and…
- This Working Life
Getting Unstuck - How to have a breakthrough
What happens when we feel stuck in our job or career, and how can we get unstuck?From overcoming fear to discovering what really makes us tick, we discover the…
- This Working Life
Don’t want to go back to the office every day? You’re not alone. Here’s why.
On average, workers are in the office half the time. But some leaders say that’s not enough. But why?Should leaders really be worried about office culture…