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.
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 25, 2022 • 30min
Don’t regret your regrets. Use them to work smarter
If we confront our regrets and use them as signals, they're a powerful force for working smarter and living better. That’s according to New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink. He’s collected the regrets of thousands of people around the world and discovered what connects us in our regrets, and how we can use them to live and work better. So let go of any shame around your regrets, and learn how to harness their power.
Dec 16, 2022 • 30min
Right to disconnect versus trust and flexibility
Many of us are enjoying the flexibility of working from home - being able to organise our work time to suit our circadian rhythms, family responsibilities and health. But with this flexibility and freedom, has there been an erosion of the concept of a “work day”? What boundaries should there be - in law or in your employment agreement?
Dec 9, 2022 • 30min
Nature at work
Feeling a bit brain fried? Fatigued from the year… over stimulated from all that screen time?Maybe you need to head outside...We look at how getting out into the natural world can help you function better in your day to day work life. What’s going on here with our brains, what’s the science behind it?
Dec 2, 2022 • 30min
Microdosing at work
Taking very small doses of magic mushrooms or LSD every few days in a bid to boost productivity, creativity, focus and mental health has become perhaps surprisingly popular in Australia and around the globe. People are experimenting with tiny doses of illegal psychedelic drugs to help them perform better at work. But why take this risk, and does it even work?Scientific studies on microdosing are in the early days but Vince Polito, cognitive psychologist and senior research fellow at Macquarie University, is at the forefront of research in Australia. We also hear from workers microdosing around Australia.
Nov 25, 2022 • 30min
Premortems - roaring success or unmitigated disaster: meet your future self with a premortem
Premortems - How to practise hindsight in advance, by looking at what went wrong before it does. And on the flip side, imagining success and how you got there, with a previctorem.
Nov 17, 2022 • 30min
How to talk to people — using our voice, not our fingers and thumbs
When is an interaction an interruption? Why do we now feel the need to ask if it’s OK to interrupt a colleague, in the middle of a work day? And hybrid work has made managing communication even more nuanced, yet crucial. Our guests explore the benefits of talking, and what we lose when we stick to typing.
Nov 13, 2022 • 30min
Welcome to the Clubhouse! Hybrid Office Design to get you back
Office renos for the hybrid world....organisations with empty floors are figuring out how to make the office more useful and attractive.Guests:Evodia Alaterou - design strategist at Hassell, principal in the Melbourne studio Ethan Bernstein - associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.Peter Wheatley - PWC workplaces leaderPresenter: Lisa LeongProducer: Sarah Allely
Nov 4, 2022 • 30min
Lessons from building the iPod, the iPhone and other useful stuff
Tony Fadell was instrumental in creating the iPod and the IPhone. He shares in his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making - that his greatest successes have come from his greatest failures. And he has some dooseys.
Oct 28, 2022 • 30min
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 your way to work, and then deal with that colleague…you’re stressed without anything major actually happening. Rob Cross says the people who maintain and prioritise their social connections, often through shared activities, are way less affected by these micro stressors.Guest:Rob Cross is a professor at Babson College, which teaches entrepreneurship. His latest book, The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems--and What to Do about It, comes out next year.Presenter: Lisa LeongProducer: Sarah Allely
Oct 21, 2022 • 30min
Autism at work
This Working Life explores ideas that are shaping changes in workplaces.
