This Working Life

ABC Australia

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 issues that relate to work, like work life balance, organisational change, restructures, and casualisation. On This Working Life our focus is on everything related to the people in a workplace too, including culture, individual experiences, performance management and career advice.

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25 episodes
weekly
Avg 24 min
English

Episodes 25

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Sunday · 25 min
Wellness shortcuts do more harm than good
Are you drowning in digital? Are the company sponsored mental health tools helping you at all? They've become the norm as they're cheaper and easier to apply than traditional methods. But research is showing that these applications and online tools aren't always cutting the mustard when it comes to improving our mental wellbeing at work; especially when they're applied as a catch all. What makes you go ommmm? Lisa investigates. And the Radio National Top 100 Australian Books countdown
September 13 · 25 min
Simone Stolzoff wants you to be uncertain!
It feels like we’re constantly being asked to know things, to be rock solid in our information. But is this desire for control and certainty stopping us from making better decisions both at work, and about our working lives? Journalist and author Simone Stolzoff has a lot of ideas about our brains and how we go to work! He’s been circling the globe hunting out people who trying to understand doubt and uncertainty for his new book How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World That
September 6 · 25 min
You're being measured!
Do you measure up? Digital and AI tools coupled with an increased desire for productivity means we’re being marked more closely than ever before. New research shows that when we know how we're being measured we stop prioritising the work that isn't measured, especially if we think the systems aren't transparent or fair. Lisa gets stuck into the modern map of "metricisation" to see how to defend soft skills from a passion for measurement! The Radio National Top 100 Australian Books countdo
August 30 · 25 min
Fluorescent lights burning you out?
How does your office make you feel? Are you an open plan convert or dying under the halogen lighting? We spend a lot of time in our workplaces and the way they’re designed can have a huge impact on our mental and physical wellbeing. Psychologists and architects are worried we've sleep walked into a world where the standard office design is actively burning workers out quick smart. It's a problem for employees stuck in environments draining them of the will, and employers losing good staff to
August 23 · 25 min
What do you do in a crisis?
How do you react in a crisis? Are you fight, flight, fawn or flee? We all react differently to moments of panic and stress but one thing we all have in common is that they cause us to make rash and poor decisions. Are we stuck like this or can we re-train ourselves to respond to panic and act or lead with a clear head? Guest: Dr James Donald, Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at Sydney University and co-author of The Clear Leader ======= You can binge more episodes of th
August 16 · 25 min
How to get hired in the AI age
Artificial intelligence use in the job hunt is happening so fast it's hard to keep track and applicants and employers are feeling harassed by the speed of the change. Candidates find themselves trapped in a paradox where they need to write applications that make it through the screening while also standing out when an application eventually reaches a human decision maker. AI interviews are increasingly popular as well for hiring organisations which job hunters are reporting can make the pro
August 9 · 25 min
We're too tired to work!
Are you just too tired to work? Australians feel exhausted. Eighty two per cent of Australian knowledge workers reported being on the verge of burnout last year, and businesses are scrambling to catch up with the cost of mental fatigue. But sleepiness can be a killer too and a major shift is underway in how Australian industries treat tiredness in the workplace. It's not a new phenomenon, people were talking about "brain fag" in Victorian England, but the way we think about fatigue and the
August 2 · 25 min
Is Gina Rinehart right about cash bonuses?
Australia’s richest person and long time supporter of Australian Swimming Gina Rinehart has been offering cash bonuses for Aussie swimmers at the Commonwealth games, $20,000 for a gold medal! It can be a nice to have after a huge challenge or a drawcard to make people work harder, but there can be a danger to motivating your team with extra dollars. So, Is Gina Rinehart right, do cash bonuses work? What actually motivates us? Lisa digs into the world of motivation and incentives to try and
July 26 · 25 min
The dangers of silence at work
Speaking out at work is hard. It's even harder in a culture of silence. To take the decision to break the quiet is an act of bravery, ands it's one many of us are unwilling to risk. But the dangers of a culture of silence are many, and they impact employers and employees alike. While it can be a scary thing to do, research has found that people staying silent to protect their own heath and wellbeing almost always have worse results for their mental health in the long term in a silent workp
July 19 · 25 min
Is it getting harder to find a job?
After the 100th email auto reply, the AI application screening and writing the umpteenth cover letter of the week, the job hunt can feel like a real drain. If you're feeling like it's harder to find a job now than last time you were looking you are not alone. A combination of people staying put, international forces and a tight economic market have all impacted the white collar worker world. And that's before we think about AI! Despite unemployment numbers remaining pretty flat the Australian
July 12 · 25 min
Is being good at your job holding you back?
Are you being asked time and again to be the one who gets everything done, is your reward for crushing it, just more “it” to crush? You might be paying a competence Tax! Research consistently shows that people who are seen as high achievers are stacked with more of the same rather than being given pathways to doing new things. it's a story a lot of people can relate to but it can be a very difficult trap to escape. Lisa is joined by a world expert in what she calls "the curse of competence
July 5 · 25 min
Take a break!
When you’re under the pump, it can feel like taking a break at work is impossible. But that can be habit forming, and bad for your physical and mental health. Learn the benefits of building breaks into your workday, and how to do it in a way that feels manageable.
June 28 · 25 min
How to avoid "Wellness Washing"
You may have heard of greenwashing, now experts are worried about wellness washing where workplaces paper over the cracks with wellbeing measures but leave the chasms underneath.
June 21 · 25 min
Why are we so bad at onboarding?
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
June 14 · 25 min
What your boss is getting wrong about AI
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
June 7 · 25 min
Don't be left out in the cold: why you should care about your organisation’s strategy
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
May 31 · 25 min
Tackle overwhelm with the 'Teamwork Doctor'
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
May 26 · 16 min
Try This: how to quit
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 Sh
May 24 · 25 min
Should you really quit your job, like Oprah?
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 o
May 17 · 25 min
AI will change your job. Here’s the SMART way to redesign it.
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.

Showing 1–20 of 25 episodes